Presently Past
by ilovepuppies125
Summary: With the war going on in the future, the next generation of children in Amity Park are sent to the past for their own safety. How will the present kids of Amity Park be able to deal with these "transfer students" who seem really familiar to them? What secrets will be revealed, both for Danny and his future children?
1. Chapter 1

***Sigh***** Here I go again, biting off more than I can chew, and posting **_**yet another **_**story that is unfinished. Saying that, I would like it to be noted that this story is NOT a priority, it's just been nagging at me to write it lately. But, I hope you enjoy it, either way.**

Presently Past

Chapter 1:

Wren POV-

"Come on, let's go," my mom ordered in hushed tones shuffling my brothers and I through the dark streets and alleys in the pre-dawn darkness. My heart was beating loudly, and with the four of us rushing through the streets, I felt vaguely like the main characters in a WWII movie I had seen with my parents when I was little. Before the war had started and we began to live our lives in fear.

Well, mostly my brothers and I lived in fear. My parents never seemed to be afraid, unless they were concerned for us. And even though I knew little of my dad's job. I knew that he was very important and powerful on the front lines of the battlefield.

"Mom, where are we going?" my six year old brother, Eli, asked, slightly louder than we had wanted. My older brother Jackson clamped a hand over his mouth as my mom looked around anxiously, hoping that no one had heard his outburst. However, the eerily dark streets remained silent as my mom tugged us along.

"I told you," my mom whispered, "We're going where they can't find you."

"Where's daddy?" Eli whimpered, quieter this time.

"He'll meet us there," my mom replied, biting her lip like there was something she wasn't telling us. However, I was too afraid to ask, probably because I was too afraid to actually know the answer.

Finally, the alleyway opened up to a dimly lit intersection, and we were not alone.

There were at least forty other people in the street. Parents and kids that I recognized from school, all with the same anxious looks on their faces that we had. I saw some of my family members too. On the other side of the street, I saw my aunt, uncle and cousin, holding tight to each other. My other aunt, who was younger but held the same important position as my dad, held close to her young twins, glancing anxiously at the open space in the center of the street, waiting for something to happen. My grandparents drifted among the crowd, assuring various parents and giving candy to the much more frightened younger kids. My large grandfather looked over at us, giving us sad smile or reassurance, but his eyes held fear.

And we all knew why.

It was dangerous for us to be out on the street at this time of night, especially in a group this large. Suddenly a swirling green portal appeared, and my dad stepped out.

"Okay," he told everyone, "This won't last for very long. I've made sure that everyone will be well taken care of, but we have to get them in quickly." His ice blue eyes roamed the crowd until they landed on us, a small look of relief crossing his worried features and he jogged over to us.

His eyes locked with my mom's before he bent down to give us all a hug.

"You three have got to go now," he said, quietly, and gently.

"Wait, you're not coming with us!" I exclaimed in a low voice looking between my parents.

"I'm sorry, but all the adults have to stay here, your mom and I included," my dad replied, brushing a black strand of hair out of my face and tucking it behind my ear.

"But dad—" Jackson tried to argue, but my dad held up a hand to stop him.

"No buts. Now I need you to be strong, all of you," he turned towards Eli, who's blue eyes had already begun to overflow with tears. "And take these," he said, handing us little cards, "You'll need them where you're going."

"But where are we going," I demanded.

"The past," he said, "Which makes it all the more important that you never disclose who you are or where you're from other than what is on that card or you could change the future."

I nodded, confused. We were going to the past?

In our time, time travel was not completely uncommon, but it left me to wonder what time we would be going to.

My mom crouched down to be eye level with Eli who was still crying. She dried his cheeks with the end of the scarf around her neck, and flattened down the stubborn piece of hair on his bright orange head, that refused to lay flat like the others. Then she turned her violet colored gaze to me and Jackson.

"Take care of each other," she insisted, grasping our shoulders.

"We love you guys," they told us, pulling us into a group hug, we muttered our 'I love you too''s to them, I cast a glance to Jackson, who, was trying desperately not to breakdown and cry, but his violet eyes watered as he quickly blinked the tears away. I understood. I too, had to fight the waves of tears right below the surface. One slipped out, trailing its way down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away before either of my parents could see. We couldn't cry, not now. We had to be strong for ourselves, our parents, and for Eli.

When we finally broke apart, dad looked over to the crowd and the portal who were still standing hesitantly around, not wanting to go in yet.

"You really need to go now," my dad turned back to us, ushering us to the portal, "And don't worry. The next time we will be together, the war will be over, and we will be free."

I recognized the double edge to that comment. We would either be free here, when we are next together, or, we will be free in heaven when we are together. That was the first time that I realized that my dad's confidence about winning the war was not as high as it usually appeared.

"Bye Daddy," I waved, as I stepped through the portal, praying that this would not be the last time I'd be able to see him as a green vortex surrounded me.

I heard the voices behind me, of my brothers and all the other kids who had received their information cards and stepped into the portal, but the voices barely registered because I was too focused on the light at the end of the vortex, taking us away from our parents and the only lives we had ever known.

Taking us into the past.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Wren POV-

The bright light was sunlight and there was a lot of it when we were dumped into a park. I blinked against the light looking up at the sky. It had been two years since any of us had seen the sun and we were drinking in every bit of it.

The park was empty, at least where we were, despite the bright, clear day.

'Everybody must be in school or at work,' I thought, looking around. It was obvious that we were still in Amity Park, but what year, I still could not tell.

I was so focused on my surroundings that I didn't notice the old man rise off of the bench not to far from us, until he was standing directly in front of us.

"I am Clockwork, Ghost of Time," the old man introduced himself, and the more I studied him the more that I could make out the blue-ish glow about him.

Most of the others recoiled in fear, which made sense since ghosts had taken over our world and enslaved many humans not only in Amity Park, but everywhere. Clockwork, did not seem surprised by this reaction as he sighed.

None of my family members expressed the same fear of the ghost. My our dad talked about ghosts, a lot, which, because of his knowledge, I had often guessed that was why he was awarded such a high position in the rebel forces. Anyway, my dad had always said that Clockwork was one of the good ghosts of the Ghost Zone, one of the few that not only supported the human race, but also was fighting to protect us.

"Guys, he's on our side," I told them, and most of them calmed down but still seemed weary of the wise old ghost. Clockwork looked at me, an amused smile on his face that obviously said, 'I-know-something-you-don't.'

"Thank you, Wren," he told me, and I was a little taken aback by the fact that he knew my name, "Now, with that said, I will continue. I will be your guide in this time, so if you have any questions you will call me. Anyway, you are in the year 2013, the year that many of your parents were teenagers. In fact, you are likely to run into your parents while you are here, or you might even be staying with them. But, I must stress how important it is that you never let any of them know who you are," Clockwork glanced especially at me, "Also, please do not get 'involved' with anyone of this time, that just creates a mess I have to sort out later. Also, no technology from your time is permitted around the people of this time," this time he glanced specifically at Sasha, an part African American, part Mexican girl who loves all things technology, a trait she got from her dad. She's a year younger than me but she's a close family friend because her dad and my dad were best friends in high school, so I know her well. Sasha looked down, embarrassed which made everyone laugh. "According to the cards you all hold, you are all foreign exchange students from an American military base in Turkey, which is why you all speak English fluently. That card in your hand has all the information you will be needing about yourself as far as your backstory goes, Including the new names you will be going by. Memorize it."

I looked down at my card. It had a small black and white photo of me along with my name in bold followed by smaller print beneath. Apparently now, I am Wren Elizabeth Erikson daughter of Daniel and Samantha Erikson. Sister of Jackson and Eli Erikson. Born on September 14, 1999. And I previously lived on the Incirlik Air Force Base in Incirlik, Turkey. College Dad went to: Southern Illinois University. College Mom went to: Southern Illinois University. How parents met: in college. Black hair, Blue eyes (seriously, do they think I don't already know that). Reason here: Foreign Exchange Program. Reason why you don't have any bags with you: you were told not to bring anything to give you more of an immersive experience here. Favorite Movie: the Avengers. Favorite Character: Captain America. Favorite Part: "Doth mother know you wearith her drapes." Favorite Book Series: The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Favorite Book in Series: The Battle of The Labyrinth. Favorite Song: Stronger- Kelly Clarkson

'Wow, really?' I shook my head, 'Way to be thorough.'

Part of that I didn't have to pretend, the Avengers is one of my dad's favorite movies so I've seen it like a million times (and that is my favorite part).

I turned to Jackson, "What'd you get?"

"The Matrix," he grinned, also one of Dad's favorites.

Clockwork cleared his throat, glaring at us when we looked back up, "If you're quite finished?" I blushed, embarrassed as some of the kids around us chuckled.

"You will be going to the Amity Park schools. Do try to look lost, you're not supposed to know the school, you're new," he reminded us, "Now I will pass out your schedules. And living arrangements. Don't worry, no siblings will be broken up."

My schedule was weirdly familiar to my actual schedule back in 2035. Then I looked at my living arrangements and nearly laughed out loud, I was living with my dad and my grandparents (unless there are another Jack, Maddie, Daniel, and Jasmine Fenton in Amity Park).

Again Clockwork gave me a very pointed look when my schedule was handed to me.

'Gee, thanks, ten minutes here and you already think I'm going to screw it up.' Which maybe I was, after all he does know the future, but I would have appreciated the benefit of the doubt.

"Wren, we got Dad," Jackson beamed, "This is going to be weird, seeing Dad in high school."

Out of the corner of my eye Clockwork cracked that knowing smile again an I rolled my eyes.

I turned to Eli, kneeling down to his level, "Now Eli, you know we're in the past, right?"

He nodded giving me a smile, which was kind of funny since he was missing one of his front baby teeth, "And we're going to see dad, but you can't call him dad, okay?" I asked slowly.

He nodded, "I know," he said proudly. I grinned and ruffled the hair on his head. I wondered where my cousins were staying.

"Where are you guys staying?" I asked walking up to them.

My sixteen year old cousin Carrie, the only child of my Aunt Jazz, shrugged. "You guys are already living with my mom, and my dad wasn't from here, so I'm living with...the Manson's."

"That's my mom's family," I told her.

"Oh, cool," she smiled and turned to our eight year old cousins, Mikey and Thomas, who are the sons of my Aunt Danielle.

"Who are you living with?" I asked them.

"I don't know," Mikey shrugged and handed me the paper. I scanned it, looking for a name.

"Foley. Oh, you guys will be staying with Sasha's dad," I told them, which meant that Sasha must be staying with her mom, Paulina. The two twins shrugged in unison, obviously not caring too much. I shook my head, rolling my eyes a little before handing them back their schedules.

"Hey," I heard a voice behind me. I turned around. It was James Baxter, only the most popular boy in my grade, not that I'd let that intimidate me or anything, we've known each other since kindergarten when he 'accidentally' put glue in my backpack. "Are you staying with one of your parents?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied, "I got my dad."

"Oh really," he grinned, "Me too. I wonder if they were friends in high school? My dad always said he was a big football star, maybe I'll actually get to play with him."

"Yeah, that's awesome. What is your fake last name?" I wondered.

"Oh...um, Green," he shrugged, "What about you?"

"Erikson," I told him handing him my schedule.

"Hey we have three periods together," he exclaimed.

"Awesome! I'm glad I'll know someone!" I replied, then I looked over at our group. Clockwork seemed to be getting us ready to leave the park.

"We better go, it looks like we're going to leave," I pointed my chin towards the crowd.

"Oh yeah, I better go get my siblings, see you around," he called running off.

"See you," I called back and went over to where my brothers stood.

"...They should be expecting you, but please don't act like you know them. Now, is everybody ready to go?" Clockwork asked.

We all replied with various forms of 'yes' before we headed out in a mass heard down the main street in town.

Amity Park didn't look so much different than I had remembered it before the war started. You know, without constant ghost patrols everywhere and a sky that never got brighter than a dark purple.

Each kid or kids were taken to each of the houses individually, by order of the block, which made us one of the last, this I knew because of the location of Fenton Works, which is now the center of the Amity Park rebel base.

I saw Sasha get dropped off at her mom's house, it was a pretty big house, she waved goodbye to us as the door closed behind her.

James and his younger brother and sister were dropped off next at, yet another, really big house, this must be the richer area of the city.

In the future wealth gets harder to distinguish because everything monetary and personal was taken by the ghosts. Instinctively, I touched the golden locket around my neck, one of the few belongings that I was allowed to keep. It belonged to my mom's grandma and my mom had given it to me.

Speaking of my mom, Carrie was dropped off at my mom's house next. My mom actually came to the door, I recognized her instantly. In the future she might not be Goth like she was here, but my mom's personality, coupled with her bright purple eyes, are hard to miss and I resisted the urge to wave at her.

The twins were dropped off at the Foley's, and slowly the rest of the kids were dropped off until it was just me and my brothers.

Clockwork floated up and waved goodbye to us, "Good luck, and remember what I said," he winked as he disappeared. I rolled my eyes and the three of us walked up the front steps to the door and I rang the bell.

"Ghost!" I heard the deep voice if my grandfather call out and I resisted the urge to laugh as my grandmother opened the door.

"Oh, you must be the foreign exchange kids, please come in, I'm Maddie Fenton," she smiled, it was so familiar it almost made my heart ache to be back home, "So you guys are from, Turkey?"

"Yes, well, actually the American Air Force Base in Turkey, but yeah," I lied easily.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Jack Fenton," grandpa said getting off of the couch and shaking our hands firmly.

"Danny, Jazz, come down here!" she called and I heard footsteps above and then saw my dad and my aunt come down the stairs. It was weird. That was not at all how I had pictured my dad in high school. I pictured him more muscular, like he is now.

"Danny, Jazz, these are the kids from the foreign exchange program that will be staying with us for a while," grandma told them.

"Hi," I waved. And Jackson took the opportunity to introduce us.

"I'm Jackson, this is my sister Wren, and our brother Eli," he said.

"Nice to meet you," Aunt Jazz said, shaking our hands.

"Yeah, nice to meet you," Dad said, shaking our hands too.

"Nice to meet you too," Jackson and I replied in unison, while Eli just seemed to be stunned.

And thus it begins.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Wren POV-

"Danny, Jazz, will you show them where they will be staying?" my grandmother…I mean…Maddie? Mrs. Fenton? Ugh, suddenly frustrated.

"Sure mom," they replied in unison and led us upstairs.

"So, you guys are from Turkey, right?" Aunt—I mean Jazz, asked, "What's it like there?"

"Well, it's sunny a lot," I said, trying to remember Turkey from my world geography class, "but I honestly can't tell you much about the cities and stuff because our parents kept us confined to base. It can be dangerous, ya know?"

Jazz nodded, and we continued down the hallway. "Okay, Wren, you'll be staying with me, in here," she pushed open a bedroom door to a pink room. I nodded, smiling, but really I was thinking. In the future, the pink paint is chipped and beginning to yellow with age, and this room was converted into a food storage room, with shelves of canned food lining the walls.

We continued down the hall to where my brothers would be staying together in the guest room.

"Um…I told Sam and Tucker that I would meet them at the Nasty Burger…so…" my dad—Danny backed down the hallway.

"Danny!" Jazz scolded, whispering in his ear. Danny sighed.

"Would you guys like to come with me?" he grumbled.

"It would give you a chance to meet some of the other people in town," Jazz added.

I looked over to my brothers, who looked, for lack of a better word, exhausted.

"I'll go," I replied, jumping at the opportunity to see my mom.

"Yeah, you go," Jackson yawned, "I think Eli, and me are going to stay here for a while."

Danny, turned to me, "Okay, let's go."

The three block walk to the Nasty Burger was…awkward. I wished my dad knew who I was; I wish I could tell him. Actually, I wish my real dad, my future dad was here. I sighed internally and watched the sidewalk cracks pass under our feet as we walked.

"So…um…" Danny cleared his throat, "What's your favorite movie?"

"The Avengers," I answered confidently. He seemed surprised.

"Really? That's one of my favorites too. What's your favorite part?"

"The part where Iron Man swoops in on Thor and Loki arguing and is all 'Doth mother know you wherith her drapes?'" I laughed as I quoted it in a fake accent. Danny laughed too.

"Yeah, that is the best part, or when Loki gets pounded by the Hulk," Danny added, acting out the scene with his hands. And I laughed, feeling the easy relationship I always had with my dad begin to resurface (or would it be surface because we're in the past?).

Finally, we arrived at the Nasty Burger, which is even nastier in the future (mostly because it became abandoned and is now a hideout for homeless people and a breeding ground for cockroaches).

Inside, at a back booth, sat my mom and my godfather, who is practically my uncle, Tucker. My mom looked at me, seeming a little confused, as we sat down.

"Hey guys…um, this is…Wren, she's with the foreign exchange thingy," Danny said, and I must say I was a little offended, it sounded like he almost forgot my name. '_Thanks a lot, Dad.'_

"Nice to meet you," my mom and godfather extended their hands and introduced themselves.

"Yeah, we have kids at our house from the exchange thing too," Tucker said.

"I saw them get dropped off from our group earlier, you guys both have some of my cousins," I told them.

"Really, your cousins came from the Turkey air force base too?" Tucker asked.

"Yeah, pretty cool, huh? My whole family is in the air force and we were all stationed in the same place," I lied on the spot, smoothly.

"I really like your shirt," mom—I mean Sam, wow this is hard to get used to—commented. I looked down to see what I was wearing. It was actually her shirt…well, my mom's shirt. I had stolen it out of her closet some time last year but I liked it so I hadn't given it back. It was a loose-fitting shirt that hung just a little off of my shoulders that was dark blue, with sequined purple horizontal stripes.

"Thanks," I replied, beaming at her.

"So you're in our grade, right?" she asked me.

"Yep. Oh, and since you mentioned it, could you guys tell me a little about the school and teachers and stuff, I don't want to be completely blindsided tomorrow," I asked them, pulling out my schedule.

"Oh, cool, you have some of our same classes. English, Biology, and Lunch," Tucker pointed out.

"Great, glad I'll have somebody to talk to," I said.

"Biology is fun…Mrs. Durrell is great, but Mr. Lancer…not so much," Danny said.

"Well, yeah, to you, your grades kind of suck," Tucker said.

"Dude, shut up," Danny replied, shoving Tucker.

'_Hmm…interesting, maybe after all of this is over, my dad won't be able to hassle me about my grades anymore,' _I thought to myself.

Suddenly, my dad coughed and stood up, sliding out of the booth. I almost missed the brief second where Tucker tossed him a dime and he went into the coin-operated bathroom (which I always thought was weird).

I looked between Sam and Tucker a little confused.

"He has bladder issues," Sam told me, which I might have believed if I didn't know any better, which meant that she was lying to me…for some reason.

There was a loud crash outside the restaurant, and, even though I looked out the window, I saw nothing. This made my skin crawl. When you live in a world controlled by ghosts you start to become suspicious or afraid of what you can't see.

After a few seconds my dad returned from the bathroom.

He turned to me.

"Hey, my mom said that she's making dinner, so we better go back to my house," he told me.

I nodded standing up.

"It was nice meeting you," I told my mom and godfather, "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Okay, see you," they replied as my dad and I walked outside. He didn't really look at me, which gave me the same sense that there was something being kept from me.

I didn't know what it was, but I was going to find out.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Danny POV-

"Is it just me, or did she seem like really familiar to you?" Sam asked me over the phone as I sat in my room after dinner.

"No, you're right, she does seem familiar, and her brothers do too. I just…can't place them?" I replied quietly, not wanting Wren in the next room to hear that I was talking about her.

"It's not just her either, the two boys living with me seem familiar too," Tucker added, dropping into our conversation.

"Yeah, and Carrie…the girl living with me, seems kind of familiar too," Sam told us, "But how could we find all of these kids familiar and never have met _any _of them before?"

"And why would an Air Force Base in Turkey decide to do a one-way exchange with Amity Park of all places?" I wondered. Tucker and Sam said nothing, probably wondering the same thing.

"I think I'll do some research into this," Tucker announced, hanging up the phone with a click, to, no doubt, hack the military base.

Sam was quiet for a second. "Wren looks _a lot_ like you, Danny. If I didn't know any better, I would swear she was Danielle…"

"Yeah," I laughed, "Maybe she actually _is _my second cousin once removed."

"I'm being serious Danny. Maybe you should keep an eye on her, she could be another one of Vlad's clones," Sam scolded.

"Yeah, and I suppose her brothers and the entire _rest _of town hosting these exchange kids are clones too? C'mon Sam, be reasonable?" I joked.

"I don't know Danny…this whole thing just seems…too weird, that's all," she said a little quieter.

"I know. But let's just see what Tucker can uncover before we start accusing people of being clones," I smirked to myself.

"Speaking of, any word on Danielle?" Sam asked, slightly changing the subject.

"Not since she last disappeared," I shrugged although I knew she could not see me over the phone.

There was a silence over the phone and I knew Sam was struggling to find something else to talk about.

"So, you said her name was Carrie?" I said.

"Yeah, she seems kind of cool…I guess, she's Jazz's age and a little preppy for my tastes but she has good taste in music. So what about Wren's brothers, what are they like?" Sam asked.

"Her older brother Jackson is Jazz's age, but other than that I don't know much about him, and her younger brother Eli is only six, and, so far the only thing I've been able to find out about him is that he like chocolate milk," I told her.

Sam laughed, and then paused as I heard voices on the other end of the phone.

"Hey, I've got to go, see you at school tomorrow," she told me.

"Kay, bye," I replied as her phone clicked off.

I set my cellphone down on my nightstand and left the room. The house was quiet, as everyone had gone their separate, respective ways after dinner; the only noise was the low rumble of the TV followed by my dad's snoring coming from downstairs.

The door to the Ops Center was opened, so, I decided to investigate, climbing up to the third level.

On the ledge of the roof, Wren was seated looking out across the city longingly. I cleared my throat and she whipped around to look at me.

"What are you doing up here?" I asked, not accusatory but simply wondering.

Wren shrugged, "Just homesick, I guess," she sighed, once again turning to look over the city. I wasn't sure how the view of the boring, rundown city of Amity Park could make her homesick. But I sat down next to her, swinging my legs over the side of the roof.

"You miss your parents?" I guessed, and she nodded, not meeting my eyes.

"I'm just worried about them, it's…dangerous where they are…" she told me, sounding like she was choosing her words carefully.

'_Hmmm, maybe her parents are doing something top secret and she's not allowed to tell me,' _I considered.

"I'm sure they're fine," I replied hopefully because I really didn't know.

Wren gave me a slight smile, but I noticed a little tear stood in her eye, and she quickly whisked it away.

"Tell me about your parents," I urged, hoping that maybe I'd be able to cheer her up, or, at the very least, find out a little more about her.

She seemed surprised, "Why?" she asked.

I shrugged, "When you live with parents like mine, it's nice to hear about normal families sometimes."

She giggled lightly, and I smirked internally as I realized I had accomplished my task of cheering her up.

Wren POV-

It seemed a little weird to me that _my dad _was asking about _my dad _but I decided to tell him…as much of the truth as possible.

"What do you want to know?" I wondered.

"I don't know, whatever you want to tell me," he grinned.

"Okay. Well, my dad's a…colonel," I lied, hoping that he wouldn't ask me any other questions about his rank or my lack of military knowledge would probably make me slip up. "So, sometimes he can be kind of strict," I continued, "but he's also funny and he always makes time for us. My mom is sometimes even stricter than my dad," I smiled to myself, not lying _at all_ with that statement. In fact, the only time my dad is stricter than my mom is regarding ghosts, or dating, specifically _me _dating. "She's the kind of person that doesn't put up with crap no matter who you are. But they are both really good at helping people, and they'd both do anything to protect us," she smiled fondly.

"What about the rest of your family?" he asked me, and I gave him a suspicious look. Was he prying or did he just want to know more about me?

"Well, like I said at the Nasty Burger, my other family members are also in the military. My grandpa is retired but he still lives on the base with us. My grandma wasn't in the military but she certainly knows her way around a gun," _or a bazooka, "_My aunt Danielle is a Major, she's great. She's actually the first one who taught me to shoot because my parents didn't want me around firearms." That was a fun day; I took down my first ghost with the Fenton Ecto-pistol. My parents had been so proud of me, but Aunt Dani still got in major trouble with my mom and dad. "Mikey and Thomas are her sons. Her husband left when the twins were born, and I'm pretty sure they haven't seen him since. My uncle Peter is also in the military, but he's a Sergeant. He's married to my Aunt J," I decided to shorten her name. My dad can be kind of oblivious but he's not stupid and if the names started lining up, he might notice something. "And Carrie is their daughter. Aunt J is kind of the brains of our whole family, and unfortunately, Carrie inherited her know-it-all tendencies. And, then, of course, there's my brothers and me," she told me.

"Okay, tell me a little bit more about you and your brothers," he prompted.

"Okay…um well, Jackson is two years older than me but we were born a week apart; him on September 7th and me on September 14th, so our birthdays get lumped together a lot. Eli's birthday is next month on March 19th. Umm…my favorite colors are emerald green and lavender, my favorite sport is soccer and I am the captain of my team. Umm…I like to paint but I suck at math…not much else to say about me. Jackson gets good grades, but he sucks at sports. Eli likes football, but because of our dad he hates the Packers," I wrinkled my nose a little myself. I have never been quite sure why my dad hates that football team, he just does, and, it's kind of rubbed off, "And his favorite show is Veggie Tales, and you will soon get sick of it."

"So you and Jackson are pretty much opposites?" he asked.

I shrugged, "Kind of, at least in our skills. He's just more logical and stuff…and I'm…not," I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly, "My mom says that I get my impulsiveness from my dad. But, Jackson and I actually have similar personalities. We both like the same music and TV shows and stuff," I told him.

"That's cool, I wish Jazz and I had more in common…sometimes," he grinned and I chuckled a little.

We sat in silence for a while and the stars began to come out. I almost felt a tear rise to the surface of my eye but I blinked it back. The stars were so beautiful, I had almost forgotten. It had been so long since I'd actually seen the night sky instead of the eerie ghost dome that surrounds the entire Earth in the future.

I heard a squeak behind us and Danny and I whipped around to see the hatch to the roof open.

"There you guys are," Jazz said as she came out of the opening, followed by Jackson.

"What are you doing up here?" Jackson asked, in the bossy way he usually does when I'm doing something that I'm not supposed to.

"Just looking at the stars," I answered standing up. Jackson, who hadn't noticed the stars, looked up, fascinated, almost like he was caught in a trance.

"Come on," Jazz broke the silence (and left me no longer wondering where my brother inherited his bossiness from), "We all have school tomorrow."

I sighed, casting one last look at the stars as I followed down the hole in the roof to go to Jazz's room.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Danny POV-

Of all the teams for her father to hate it was funny that he hated the Packers, because I did too. Of course, I hated the Packers because it was Vlad's only other obsession, other than my mom. I'm sure their dad hates it for some other reason, a team rivalry, probably. The funny thing is though; in Turkey I wouldn't think you'd be able to watch a lot of American football.

I shook my head. It's an American air force base; of course they're able to watch American football.

Another…strange inconsistency was Jackson's reaction to the stars, like he had not seen them in a long time. Correct me if I'm wrong but, aren't stars kind of a universal thing? I'm pretty sure they have them in Turkey too.

'_Oh well,'_ I mentally dropped the subject as I laid down to go to sleep, '_I'm sure it's nothing.' _

The next morning I awoke to the obnoxious beeping of my alarm clock. I groaned, sitting up and turning it off.

Mondays suck.

I slowly got ready for school, pulling on jeans, a t-shirt, and a hoodie. I smoothed down a hair on my head that stuck up, running my fingers through until it was at an acceptable level of messiness and then going downstairs for breakfast.

Wren and Jackson were heading downstairs at the same time, in the same tired, 'I-hate-Mondays' mood that I was.

Eli had been taken to school an hour earlier by my parents, who now sat at the opposite end of the breakfast table, looking as exhausted as we were. I pulled out a box of cereal and poured it into a bowl, passing the box to Jackson and Wren who also poured a bowl. We ate in silence, which seemed perfect for us, as no one looked exactly ready to hold a conversation this early in the morning. But, of course, the only morning person in the family, Jazz, had to come and ruin our peaceful silence.

"So, are you guys ready?" she asked Wren and Jackson cheerfully as she grabbed a granola bar and some orange juice for herself.

"Yeah," Wren said quietly in an 'I'm-too-tired-to-talk-why-are-you-talking-to-me' voice that Jazz didn't seem to pick up on.

"Oh that's good. Jackson, you have some of your classes with me so you can follow me to know how to get there. Danny you said that Sam was staying with someone my age too, right? So Jackson, you and I can wait out front for her and then we can all walk to class together," she said. Jackson nodded with a grunt of acknowledgement, as he picked up another spoonful of cereal and put it in his mouth.

Once we had finished dinner, we all piled into Jazz's car and she drove us to school, her usual soft hits of the eighties station drifting through the speakers and making me want to fall asleep.

Wren and I waited out front with Jazz and Jackson because Sam would arrive with Carrie. Tucker showed up after a few minutes.

"Dude, have you seen some of these new girls? They're kind of hot, and they don't know me, I might have a chance," he exclaimed. At the same moment, Wren, who had been drinking from a water bottle choked, spewing water on the ground. I looked over at her, my eyebrow raised, but she just coughed again, shaking her head and gesturing that she was alright, but I didn't miss the strange look she shared with her brother.

Finally, Sam and Carrie showed up. Carrie appeared to be just as preppy as Sam had said she was. She was wearing a knee-length brown plaid skirt, and a quarter sleeved sage green colored shirt. Her hair which was a reddish-brown, fell straight to her shoulders where it flared out a little at the edges and was pulled back by a green headband.

'_Wow, something tells me that this girl will definitely be friends with Jazz,' _I thought. Sam introduced her and then Jackson, Jazz, and Carrie left to their first period class and Wren, Sam, and I went the opposite direction to ours: English with Mr. Lancer.

Today was actually the first time in about four days that I hadn't shown up late because I was fighting a ghost, and Mr. Lancer noticed.

"Ah, Mr. Fenton, nice of you to actually show up early for once," he said sarcastically, "And, you must be one of the new students," he said turning to Wren, "What's your name?"

"Wren Erikson," she said as Mr. Lancer glanced down at his list of students.

"Here, you are. Well, why don't you take a seat next to Ms. Manson," he said. Wren nodded and took her seat next to Sam as we waited for everyone else to show up.

Wren POV-

As people filed in, I recognized a lot of them. I saw Brenda Lee and her father whose name is…I think Kwan. Her mother Star was also in our class, but she must not be living with her because they came in at different times.

A lot of the other people I vaguely recognized, probably because they had moved out of Amity Park once things had started going bad, just like a lot of people had, but, little did they know at the time, that ghost rule would spread over the entire world.

I looked over at my mom's notebook, filled with notes written in her neat, slated, handwriting. I smiled to myself, it was a silly thing to be comforted by, but it was comforting none the less.

The bell rang and class started. Mr. Lancer, who got even older and fatter in the future, yet still, he is one of my teachers, blathered on about Shakespeare, which was, once again, weird to me because I had heard the same lecture a week ago. Isn't it strange, a week ago for me would have been considered the past in the future, but not it's considered the future? I shook off these thoughts. There are so many things about the time stream that confuse me.

About half-way through class, my dad raised his hand and asked to go to the bathroom. Mr. Lancer simply sighed and nodded as my dad practically bolted out of the room.

Weird.

The next two periods after English passed uneventfully, but I had neither of my parents in these classes. I had James in my second period geometry class, but we were assigned to sit on opposite sides of the room so the extent of our interaction was a slight wave before the lesson began. Finally, it was time for fourth period lunch.

I got to lunch fairly quickly, and simply got a water bottle and a packet of peanut butter crackers from the vending machine when I realized that it was unlikely that there would be a lunch account set up for me. Unfortunately, it then occurred to me that I had no idea where my parents generally sat. I stood in the corner, scanning the crowds until I spotted a familiar trio of heads taking the farthest table in the corner. I resisted the urge to laugh out loud. This is where I usually sit with my friends.

"Hi guys," I smiled, sitting at the table next to them.

"Oh hey," Sam said, "So how was second and third period?"

I shrugged "How do you expect my geometry and geography classes went?" I asked sarcastically.

"Do you have Mrs. Archer?" Tucker asked and I nodded in response. They all grimaced in response.

"So, not very well, I take it?" Danny smirked and I shook my head, causing them all to laugh.

At the other end of the cafeteria, I saw James sit with—wow, he _does_ look a lot like his dad (except with brown-tinted hair instead of blonde)—and the rest of the football/popular crowd.

He smiled and walked over.

"Hey Wren," he greeted me with a wave.

"Hey James," I smiled back but neither of us got to continue our conversation because his dad…Dash…and several of his large friends got up and walked in our direction.

"James, why are you talking to these losers?" Dash asked clapping a hand on his shoulders and studying my parents and Tucker with a sneer. James paled a little, looking unsure what he wanted to say or do.

"Um…" James stuttered but he didn't get to finish because his dad finally saw me and gave me a supposed-to-attractive-or-charming-smile, but it made me want to puke.

"Hey, you're pretty. Why are _you _hanging out with Fenturd and these losers?" he asked, and my desire to barf just went up, but I was able to repress it because of the anger that was now beginning to swell. He just insulted my parents…twice. I know, they're not technically my parents yet and I probably shouldn't be so defensive, especially because I know that Mr. Baxter and my dad become friends in the future, but it pissed me off.

Sorry James.

"Look who's talking," I smirked, sarcastically arching my eyebrow and his whole crowd erupted in a chorus of "oohs."

"What did you just say?" he asked.

"Do you need me to say it slower? Are you actually as dumb as you look?" I smirked sarcastically again. By now, Dash was turning red, and even James started to look a little pissed. I cast him an apologetic look out of the corner of my eye, hoping that he got the message: that I was not insulting his dad, I was insulting the jerk who had just insulted my parents.

Without another word, Dash whipped around stalking off towards the popular table. James looked between me and his father helplessly before running off to join him after we shared one mutual apologetic look, and I knew that my message had gotten through.

"Nice!" my mom exclaimed, holding up her hand for a high five which I met with a smile.

"Who was that guy?" my dad asked.

"His name is James Green, I know him from the base. It's funny because we are actually in close social circles in school," I told them.

"He could be Dash's twin," I heard my dad mutter under his breath, as he looked over to their group, probably in deep thought.

"You know you didn't have to do that for us?" Tucker asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused, as I took a sip of my water bottle.

"I mean, you didn't have to tell Dash off like that, now you've ruined any chance of being popular while you're here," he told me.

"Like I care," I said, "Who needs to be popular? And someone needed to tell him off."

"But what about your friend?" Danny asked.

I waved it off, "We'll be fine. He knows I wasn't insulting him."

They nodded and we continued our meal until the next bell rang and we all moved on to our biology class.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Wren POV-

The rest of the day went as well as could be expected. I had biology with my parents, and my dad got up and left, again.

That was my last class with them for the rest of the day, and, it seemed that in 6th period, word of my "telling off" Dash seemed to have already gotten around school. Although, it did seem to have quite a mixed effect. Some kids, namely those on the lower end of the popularity spectrum, gave me high fives, but at the same time, the hateful glares of the popular crowd let me know that I had made enemies.

All of the future students didn't quite know how to react. Dash, of course was an adult, a parent, and most importantly, an authority figure (chief of the Amity Park police department), that was _supposed_ to be respected. But, at the same time, here he was acting like…well, a high school jerk.

James was in both my seventh and eighth period classes, and his uneasy glances didn't put my conscience in any better a position.

Unfortunately, Dash was also in our eighth period class, and I didn't like the look he was giving me.

When the dismissal bell rang, I gathered up my things and practically sprinted to my new locker. I turned the combination, putting away the books from my last class and taking out my folders from earlier in the day, shoving them into the confines of my backpack.

The halls were quickly filling with people excited to go home, and, with no sign of Dash, I might actually be able to make it to Jazz's car without confrontation. I closed my locker door, and there leaning cockily against the other lockers was the jock himself. I did a quick glance behind him. The halls were already almost clear, no sign of faculty, my parents, or James.

I picked up my backpack off of the ground, regarding him with a glare.

"You should learn to show more respect," he told me, stepping towards me. I involuntarily stepped back and I felt the wall brush up behind me.

That's just great, now he cornered me.

"I suppose I might have showed some respect if you actually deserved any of it," I remarked, still holding my scowl on him.

"Of course I deserve respect. I'm the most popular guy in school. I'm the star football player and I'm the guy all the girls want," he stepped forward, lowering his voice, probably attempting to be seductive or something.

'_Oh God,' _I mentally whimpered, feeling queasy, '_If he takes one more step, this time I'm actually going to barf,'_ I thought, realizing that I would never, comfortably be able to go over to James's house again so long as his dad was there.

"Don't kid yourself," I remarked, swallowing the bile rising in my throat, "Girls want guys who show respect, not only to them, but to everyone. And the way you treated Danny, Sam, and Tucker, and now the way you are treating me, does not show that you know anything about respect."

He paused, actually seeming to think this over for a second, and unconsciously backed up a little from me.

"Dash, let her go," I heard a threatening voice say behind him. I knew the voice as my father's but I could not see him passed Dash's large frame.

"Yeah, dude, that's not cool," I heard James chime in, sounding more uncomfortable than I was.

Dash stepped aside, and I saw my dad, looking pissed, and…I swear his eyes…no, that can't be right. Behind my dad forming the other two sides of a triangle were my mom and Tucker. Next to the three of them, James was standing, looking visibly distraught and giving me an extremely apologetic look.

With the space that had Dash's stepping aside had opened, I slipped out from the corner and ran to…well, hide safely behind my parents.

Dash said nothing, he just walked away.

James, with a very pained expression on his face, gave me one last look and followed behind Dash. I felt a little bad for James; I'd hate to be in that car on the way home.

"Are you okay?" my mom asked and my dad looked at me with concern.

I nodded, unable to say anything else. My mom accepted this and she put her hand on my shoulder, gently leading me out of the school to where Jazz was parked out front.

Eventually I had managed to distance the present Dash from the future Mr. Baxter in my mind, because after all, they were different people. Dash was a jerk, but Mr. Baxter was an inspiring force in the rebel army with a wife and three kids. They weren't the same person, at least, not right now. And, because of that, I knew I had to at least, try to forgive Dash, because I knew the kind of person that he would become.

Heck, maybe what I said to him today would make him begin to change.

Danny POV-

I hated the way Dash had treated Wren, heck, I hated the way he treated all girls, but I seemed to impact Wren in a worse way, for some reason. But her reactions were what were weird to me. Starting at lunch…there is a large majority of people who would have either ignored or sided with Dash when he insulted us, but with Wren, she almost seemed…personally insulted, to the point that she made herself a public target. Another weird thing was that, when we came to her rescue, she immediately ran to me and Sam…in fact, it almost seemed like it was instinctual to her.

'_There is definitely something she is hiding,' _I decided, making a mental note to check into her past a little deeper.

'_Hmm…' _I thought, mischievously formulating a plan, '_maybe…I could just go into her dreams a little…'_

I shook my head at the thought, that was wrong…right? But at the same time, she _was _hiding something, something that could be important to know if she is staying with me and my family.

'_Okay,' _I justified to myself, '_I need to do this.' _

With that in mind, I took a look at the clock. 11:30 p.m. she would probably be asleep by now. I stood up, making myself invisible and intangible as I phased through the wall and into Jazz's room. The only light came from a lava lamp on Jazz's desk that slowly bubbled up and down. Both Jazz and Wren were sound asleep, breathing lightly.

'_Well,'_ I sighed internally, '_Here goes nothing,' _and I phased into Wren's head.


	7. Chapter 7

**Congratulations! You have unlocked a bonus chapter, that's TWO chapters for the wait of ONE.  
Haha, I just couldn't stop writing, I hope you enjoy it.**

Chapter 7:

Danny POV-

I entered Wren's head.

At first it all seemed like a black mess, with really no organization, just random thoughts floating through the darkness, occasionally bumping into me. But, after only a few seconds, Wren must have drifted into a deeper sleep as a scene, what looked like a memory, unfolded.

It was Wren, but a much younger version of herself when she was probably no older than five, Jackson, at seven years old, and two adults who must have been her parents. The four of them were in a park, a park eerily similar to the Amity Park Park. The parents, her mom, a woman with long black hair pulled in a ponytail and violet eyes, and her dad, a man with blue eyes, a goatee, and long hair that was also pulled into a ponytail (funny, that doesn't look like a military regulation cut to me). Looking at them all together, it was easy to see where Jackson and Wren got their looks from. Jackson was a smaller version of his dad but with his mom's eyes, and Wren had features of both but had her dad's eyes. Interestingly enough, both of the parents looked really, really, really familiar, and every part of my brain was telling me that I should know who they were, but I couldn't place them.

In the dream, Wren giggled, blowing bubbles into the air. Her dad laughed, popping them. She pouted a little before blowing more bubbles. Her mom rolled her eyes, scolding the two, and wiping the sticky bubble soap off of Wren's hands with a moist wipe.

Then the scene changed, going from a pleasant family memory to, what looked like, a nightmare.

Wren looked to be about seven or eight in this scene. But she, her mother, a now nine or ten year old Jackson and Eli who was only a baby, were crowded together in what looked like a closet.

"Where's daddy?" Wren asked, looking absolutely terrified.

"Shh…" her mother said, wrapping one arm around her, and holding Eli with the other, "Daddy's fine."

"What's going on?" Jackson asked in a quiet voice.

"Shh…honey, I don't know yet. But everything is going to be alright," she told him.

The scene changed again, and now they stood on the steps and so did their neighbors around them, looking up as the sky turned from light blue to a dark purple that I knew all too well. I had seen the sky turn that color several times, every time a new ghost tried to take over Amity Park, but Wren could never have seen that…

Another scene, this time with rows of ghosts storming down the street like soldiers.

Another scene, her dad and some other familiar looking men centered around a map on a table. He looked up and spotted Wren.

"Honey, go upstairs," he said and she did as he continued to give the other men orders. So maybe her dad was a general or a colonel or whatever she told me, but I was pretty sure it wasn't for the U.S. air force.

The scene shifted again.

"Wren, come here," her dad ordered to his daughter who played absentmindedly on a swing. I could feel a cold chill as suddenly three of the ghost soldiers surrounded Wren, lifting her up about ten feet off of the ground by her arms as she kicked and screamed in protest.

"Let her go," her dad ordered, venom lacing his voice, "It's me you want, not her," her dad stood his ground, and…I could have sworn that I saw his eyes turn green like mine do sometimes but I blinked quickly and it was gone.

'_Must have been a trick of the light,' _I reasoned with myself focusing my attention back on Wren who was still being held hostage.

The ghosts laughed. "You're wrong. He wants all of you,—" the ghost sounded like he was about to give the father's name, but Wren's fall to the ground must have startled her awake because I was shot out of her head with such force that I also went through the wall, back into my room.

'_Who is "he"? What does he want them for?' _I wondered, lying back down.

At least I now knew one thing for sure; I have no idea who Wren and her family actually are.

Wren POV-

I shot up in bed, sweat pooling on my forehead as I struggled to regulate my breathing. The dream I had just awoken from repeated itself over and over again in my mind. It was a memory.

I had only been about six years old, and it was directly after the ghost reign had formed over Amity Park, slowly extending its rule over the world. I had been unable to understand why I couldn't play on the swing my dad had tied to the tree a year before, so, when he wasn't looking, I slipped out the backdoor to go play.

He was outside only about a minute later, looking pissed, but also concerned as he ordered me off of the swing. I was pouting as I slowly came off, but, before I could, I was grabbed from behind and hoisted into the air. I can't remember if I screamed, though I think I must have.

"Let her go. It's me you want, not her," my dad ordered from below, in the same tone he had use today when saving from Dash. His eyes changed to a dangerous color of green…wait…green, the same color I had thought I had seen in my dad's eyes today. The only reason it hadn't registered earlier was because…for some reason…I had forgotten this memory.

"You're wrong. He wants all of you—" was the last thing I heard before I was dropped. From there, the rest of the memory went dim, almost like it had been erased.

It wasn't until years later that I had actually found out who "he" was. He was the man who had caused all of our struggles in his insane rise to power. He was the person my dad hated with a greater passion than I had ever seen my dad hate anyone. He was the one who wanted us…why, I did not know. He is Vlad Masters.

I shuddered involuntarily and laid back against the pillow, clutching the blankets close to me.

I didn't know why I had seen this forgotten memory. But it did help to confirm one thing. My dad was hiding something, and maybe I could use the past to find out what it was and why he had hidden it from us.


	8. Chapter 8

**Wow, three in one night, I must really like you guys tonight. Or maybe I really like this story tonight, or perhaps I'm just insane. But, I hope you enjoy it anyway.**

Chapter 8:

Danny POV-

"Danny, it's 3 o'clock in the morning. This better be good," Sam growled in a half-asleep irritation over the phone after I called her to talk about what I had seen in Wren's dream.

"It is. Wren is hiding something big, something related to ghosts or me or something and I don't know exactly what it is but—"

"Whoa, Danny, slow down. What are you talking about?" she asked me, sounding more confused than alarmed.

"Wren knows something. I'm not sure what she knows or how much she knows but she knows something about ghosts and she definitely isn't from Turkey and—"

"Okay. Let's try this again," Sam sighed, "How do you know this?"

"I went into her dream and—"

"Danny!" Sam exclaimed in anger, "That's an invasion of privacy. You can't just go into somebody's dreams!"

"I know and I'll feel bad about it later. But this is really important," I told her. Sam sighed.

"Okay. What exactly did you see in her dream?" Sam asked me. I took a deep breath preparing to retell her slowly this time.

"Well, the dreams were her memories, but it was like they were things that hadn't happened yet. And they were almost all about ghosts taking over…Amity Park, I think…but it could have also been the whole world. And apparently 'he' wants Wren and her family for some reason," I told her.

"Who's he?" she asked.

"I don't know, they didn't say. But there must be some reason that her entire family would be wanted by 'him'. I would understand her dad because he seems like the leader of some kind of rebellion against them, but I don't know why 'he' would want her—"

"Danny, you're doing it again. Slow down. Now who are 'they'?" she asked.

"They were these ghost soldiers that were patrolling the streets and dropped Wren out of the sky," I said. Sam sighed again, obviously not understanding the severity of what I just saw.

"Okay. Why do you think that 'he' and the ghost soldiers would be after Wren and her family?" Sam asked, sounding annoyed and tired.

"Because I'm pretty sure I saw her dad's eyes turn green," I stated matter-of-factly. This got her attention.

"What? Danny, are you absolutely sure?" she asked.

"I'm like ninety percent sure. There is a slim possibility that it was a trick of the light, but I know what I saw," I stated.

"So are you saying you think her dad is a halfa? Or are you saying you think a ghost processed her dad?" Sam asked for clarification.

"I think he must be a halfa because it only happened when he got mad," I told her.

"Okay, so let me guess, you're thinking that either Wren and her brothers have those powers and that's why 'he' would want them, or that 'he' wants to use her family to get her dad to do what 'he' wants him to, and that's why Wren and her brothers were sent here, however you don't know how all the other kids tie in, am I right?" she questioned, stating my exact same thought process.

"Yes," I told her. She was silent for a moment.

"Danny," she sighed, "What makes you so sure that this wasn't just some bizarre dream scenario that her brain came up with?" she asked.

"It was too real," I told her. Sam sighed.

"But too many other things don't add up. I'm not saying parts of the dream weren't memories, but, couldn't parts of it also have been made up like a nightmare? She has been through a lot today and she's away from her parents that could leave her so stressed out that she starts having nightmares," Sam proposed.

"I-I don't know," I admitted.

"Okay," Sam took a deep breath, "Now, with that said. Maybe you should just keep an eye on her. Don't immediately start questioning her, okay?" she asked.

"Alright," I sighed.

"Good. Oh, and stay out of her dreams, that's just wrong," Sam scolded me.

"No promises," I muttered, and she sighed again on the other end of the phone.

"Fine, whatever. Just don't call me at 3 o'clock in the morning every night. And why don't you ask Tucker if he dug up anything tomorrow at school, it might help you confirm or disconfirm parts of her story," Sam suggested.

"Yeah, okay, good idea," I agreed because that was a smart thing for me to do.

"Well," she yawned, "I'm going to bed. Unless the world is ending, don't wake me up again."

I laughed, "Okay, I won't. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Sam replied, hanging up the phone.

I looked at the phone for a few seconds, contemplating whether or not I should call Tucker now and ask him. I quickly decided against it because I'm pretty sure I can only handle one tired, pissed, friend at one time.

I laid down in bed and my thoughts flashed back to the scene in Wren's dream where the sky became purple and ghosts patrolled the streets, and I prayed to God that I wouldn't have to make the end-of-the-world call to Sam tonight.

And, with that uneasy thought swirling in my head, I closed my eyes and drifted into a light, restless sleep filed with images of ghost soldiers.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Danny POV-

"Are you alright, Danny?" Jazz asked me, looking over coffee at breakfast the next morning.

"Yeah, I just didn't get much sleep last night," I replied, absentmindedly spinning the spoon around in the milk of my cereal.

A few seconds later Jackson and Wren entered the kitchen, Wren pushed in first and took the cereal from its spot next to me on the table and poured herself a bowl. Wren seated herself between Jazz and I at the table. I cast a quick glance at her and noticed the circles that hung below her eyes. Jackson came in after Wren and studied his sister intently as he poured some coffee and buttered a bagel.

'_Hmm…maybe I could invade Jackson's privacy tonight,' _I made a mental note.

"Wren, what is it? Are you okay?" he asked finally her with concern. She looked up, giving him a dirty look then dramatically dropping her spoon with a metallic clang, before finally sighing and answering her brother.

"I'm fine. I just didn't sleep well last night," she replied dropping her eyes to her cereal bowl. I mentally shrugged, judging by the dreams she had last night, I had no doubt that she did not end up sleeping well. I mean seriously, I nearly had nightmares from _her _nightmares, so, if she had actually, somehow, _lived _these things then I could imagine that she would be a little on edge right now. I turned back to my cereal, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jazz's eyes widen.

Jazz gave me an accusatory glare before grabbing my arm.

"Danny, can I talk to you?" she ordered more than questioned as she dragged me into the hall under the stairs.

"Danny!" Jazz hissed in a low voice, glancing behind her to make sure we weren't followed, "You didn't _do _anything with Wren last night, did you?"

"Wait, what? What do you—Oh! No, no, I didn't I swear, at least not in the way you're thinking!" I replied

"Then what did you do?" she asked me, raising an eyebrow at me as she stood with her arms crossed.

"Umm…" I rubbed the back of my neck guiltily, "I sort of, kind of, maybe…invaded her dreams…a little."

"Danny!" Jazz threw her hands up, whisper-yelling at me, "That's an invasion of privacy!"

"I know, I know. Sam already read me the right act last night," I sighed and Jazz calmed down a little.

"Why did you even do it?" she asked after a few seconds.

"Because…there's something that they're not telling us, and her dreams only confirmed that, you should have seen her nightmares, they were so disturbing, it's no wonder she's such a mess today," I told her.

"What were they about?" Jazz wondered.

"Here, Amity Park, and Ghosts had taken over, like big time." I stated. Jazz nodded slowly, lost in thought and thinking over what I had just told her. Then another thought seemed to come into her mind as she turned to me again.

"Wait a minute! You've never been in my dreams have you?!" Jazz exclaimed.

"I don't know, why don't you ask Taylor Lautner," I smirked.

"Danny!" she shrieked, and attempted to grab me, but with another smirk, I turned intangible before phasing through the floor with a wave goodbye.

Wren POV-

"What was that about?" Jackson asked as Jazz pulled Danny out of the room.

"Like I know," I shrugged, taking another bite of my cereal.

"So why didn't you sleep well?" he asked, sitting across from me at the table and taking a sip of his coffee. I wrinkled my nose. He drinks his coffee black like our dad does (or at least he does in the future), while I, on the other hand, drink my coffee with milk and sugar at a ratio of one to one with the coffee.

"Bad dreams," I answered simply.

"About the war," Jackson stated, knowingly, lowering his voice.

"Yeah," I said. We were both silent for a minute.

"Are you worried about them?" Jackson wondered.

"Well, yeah, they're our parents and they're at war and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it" I exclaimed.

"Shh…lower your voice," Jackson scolded. I paused; I hadn't even realized that my voice was getting higher.

"Sorry, okay...it's just, you know…" I sighed, looking down at the familiar wood grains on the kitchen table. I've sat here, so many times, I even doodled a flower in permanent marker on the table when I was four, one that they were never able to remove…or will never be able to remove, I smiled a little to myself, rubbing the spot where it will eventually be.

"I know…but, I'm sure they're fine, and you know dad wouldn't want us to be worried about them," Jackson told me.

"Why don't we just ask him," I added bitterly.

"Wren, you know that we can't do that," Jackson said, adding a stern edge to his voice as if to say "Don't-you-even-think-about-it."

"Yeah, yeah, but it's driving me insane," I mumbled, taking another bite of my now-soggy cereal.

"Danny!" I suddenly heard Jazz angrily shriek from the hallway. Jackson heard it to, and he gave me a look before we both jumped out of our seats and ran into the hall.

"What is it? What's wrong?" we asked in unison.

"Danny is going to have to find his own way to school. Come on, we're going to be late anyway," Jazz said with a scowl as she huffed, regaining her composure. Then she picked her bag off of the floor and her car keys out of the ceramic bowl on the hall table and stormed out through the front door. Jackson and I blinked quickly at each other before grabbing our bags off of the floor and following Jazz out the door to go to school.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

Wren POV-

"Hey, Wren, you okay?" my mom asked as I approached them in the school courtyard. I glanced at my dad who stood leisurely next to my mom, wondering how he had possibly gotten to school before us.

"I'm fine. Why does everyone keep asking me that?" I huffed sitting on a bench.

"Hey, we're just concerned, that's all," my mom said defensively. I sighed. Of course, I knew that but I didn't want them to ask me because I couldn't very well answer them. What could I possibly say? Oh, you know, I'm just a little bit out of it because I have dreams about the apocalyptic future and I'm worried about my parents, who are you guys, and who are fighting the war against the ghosts. Yeah, something tells me that that would not go over well at all.

"I know. Thanks," I sighed reluctantly.

"Why are you so crabby anyway?" Tucker asked, and I saw my dad give him an elbow to the ribs out of the corner of my eye.

"I just…had a bad dream," I said. My mom nodded before casting a strange look at my dad. There they go again, acting weird and being mysterious.

As much as I want to find out what they're hiding from me, at the same time, I am having a hard time, morally, digging into my parents' secrets…even if they aren't technically my parents yet.

"Do you want to talk about it?" my mom pressed, sounding less like the concerned parent I'm familiar with, and more like she was trying to get information out of me.

"No…not yet," I replied, which was, not technically a lie.

I didn't want to talk about it. The memories were too strong…and too disturbing. And, more than that, they made me consider, for the first time, that my parents, my future parents, had more dangerous secrets that they had never told us about.

It scared me. My parents and I have always had a really close relationship. I mean during wartime, why would we keep secrets from each other when we might not get tomorrow to tell each other the truth?

But now I didn't know the way that I used to.

The first bell rang for class to start and I sighed as we all stood up, gathering our things, to head off to first period.

Danny POV-

In second period, when Wren was not around I took the opportunity to ask Tucker about what he found.

"Tucker did you find out anything about all these kids?" I asked in a low voice.

"No. Nothing, at all. It's like they don't exist or something…none of their names are in the database and there was nothing about an exchange program. In fact, doing a foreign exchange of an entire military base is completely unheard of," he exclaimed quietly, like he was frustrated, throwing his hands up in confusion.

"Weird," I nodded.

"Very," Tucker agreed, "But that leaves the question: if they're not from an air force base in Turkey, than where are they from?"

"And more importantly, who went through the trouble of creating this lie to bring them here?" I wondered.

I glanced over to the back corner of the room where Wren's friend James was sitting taking notes.

He did look like Dash. The resemblance was so similar, it was almost scary. He had the same tall, blockish body of someone made to play football, the same face, and the same eyes. The only difference was the fact that his hair was a darker shade, almost to the point of a light brown, and the fact that he was actually taking notes and trying to pay attention in class.

'_Hmm…' _I mused, '_Maybe they are a superior alien race that came to replace us one at a time.' _I didn't seriously consider this thought but, to be honest, it made the most sense of anything that had happened in the past two days.

In my next class, I decided to confront Sam about some of the things I had been noticing.

"Okay, well wasn't it a little weird that she stood up for us?" I asked.

"No," Sam said, not looking up from her history textbook, "I wish more people would take a stand against Dash."

"Yeah, I get that. But she didn't _have _to stand up for us…and it almost seemed like she was personally insulted," I explained. Sam said nothing, but I noticed that her eyes stopped skimming the page, like she had actually stopped to consider that, "And then when we broke up the thing with Dash…it was almost like she instinctively ran to _us._"

"Well, we were the ones saving her," Sam reminded me.

"This was different…" I trailed off, shaking my head, but, at the same time, having no reasonable explanation for _why _this was different.

Sam sighed, closing her book to look at me. "I don't know, Danny, you have a point. Nothing is adding up…but neither of us have an explanation either. What did Tucker find out?"

"Nothing. Absolutely, nothing," I told her. Sam pursed her lips, trying to create a reasonable theory, but not being able to.

"Okay," she said, pulling out a piece of paper, "What do we know?" I breathed a sigh of relief, happy that Sam was finally seeing the need for us to investigate this seriously.

"Everyone looks familiar," I started and she jotted it down beside a 1, "There is no record of them. Someone wants them for some reason. Their fake stories are incredibly thorough. They give vague recounts of their past. They have loyalties to certain people despite barely knowing them. They seem surprised by simple things like stars. They came with all family members except adults. They might or might not be halfas. And Wrens dad hates the Packers," I rattled off. Sam gave me an 'are-you-kidding-me-look' with my last suggestion.

"What?" I asked, "It's worth noting." Sam rolled her eyes but wrote down the bit about the Packers anyway.

"What else?" she asked and I racked my brain trying to think of something.

"Her parents look familiar too. And her dad is the leader of…something, I just don't know what," I finished.

"So what now?" Sam asked, folding up the list and shoving it in her back pocket.

"Well…I was planning on going into her brother's dreams tonight…and…I don't know maybe, following them around?" I suggested.

"Danny you can't follow them around. It's bad enough that you're going into their dreams," Sam admonished me.

"Maybe I can't. But I know someone who can," I smirked and felt my eyes turn green.


	11. Chapter 11

**Well, it's easy to see where the inspiration lightning bolt is striking today. Anyway, I am currently on spring break, so I will try to get to all my stories, but for now, here's another chapter. Enjoy **

Chapter 11:

Danny POV-

That night I floated outside the house, waiting for Jackson to fall asleep so that I could enter his dreams.

He ended up falling asleep at around eleven o'clock, allowing me to phase through the wall and into the bedroom. Eli slept soundly on the other side of the bed and I briefly considered entering his dreams too but quickly reconsidered. I had no reason to enter Eli's dreams; he was probably too young to have very many clear memories anyway. So I phased into Jackson's head.

A scene unfolded and Jackson, who was probably about two or three, sat on a chair with his dad, dressing in blue scrubs, kneeling in front of him. Next to Jackson were the other members of the family. His Aunt Jay and two year old Carrie with who I'm assuming is his Uncle Peter, another woman who I guessed was his Aunt Danielle, and an older couple who I understood to be the grandparents. The other people shifted in and out of focus as Jackson's attention changed to his dad.

"Is the baby here?" he asked in a toddler voice.

"Yeah buddy and you can see her in just a minute," his dad laughed.

After a few seconds, the door to the adjacent room opened and a nurse popped her head out giving them a nod.

"Okay, you can all come in now," she said and the group stood up, Jackson at the front, leading them in.

The room was dark, with a single light on the bed, with several machines on either side of the bed where their mom was laying, drenched in sweat and holding a baby wrapped in a pink blanket close to her.

Jackson ran over to the bed, standing on his toes to get a better view, and, when that failed, he climbed right into the bed next to his mom and leaned over to see the baby. His dad laughed again and went to stand next to his wife.

"Waz her name?" Jackson asked as the rest of the family crowed on the other side of the bed to see the baby.

"Wren," his mom answered with a smile to her son.

"When?" Jackson asked cocking his head to the side.

"No, W-rrrr-en," his dad said, speaking the name slowly, however, it seemed Jackson was no longer listening.

"She's beautiful," I heard a female voice say; although I could not pinpoint which voice it was in the darkness. As if on cue, Wren opened her stunning blue eyes, causing a delighted gasp from the crowd.

"Here," their mom said, handing Wren over to their dad, who opened his arms and supported her head against his arm. He walked slowly to the other side of the bed, like he was afraid that moving too quickly would break his fragile little daughter, and allowed the others to circle around him.

He handed her gently to the grandma, who took her carefully, cooing soft words to Wren.

"You did good son," the grandpa said in a deep, booming, familiar, voice, putting his large hand on their dad's shoulder.

"Thanks dad," their dad muttered awkwardly and looked to his wife who gave him an overjoyed smile.

The scene shifted.

Now their dad sat with Jackson, who was probably about four, on one knee, and Wren who was probably about two, on the other, reading them a Dr. Seuss book.

Suddenly their dad gasped, and, although, I only saw him from the back, I somehow knew that a mist had come out of his mouth, providing a little confirmation to my theory. The angle changed and I saw both kids looking up at their dad, not having seen the mist but wondering why he had suddenly stopped reading.

"Hey, Jackson, why don't you go ask your mom to finish this, okay? Daddy's got to go do something right now, okay?" he told him.

Jackson didn't seem troubled as he picked up the book by the corner and carried it down the hall, followed by Wren who bounced along behind him playing with the ends of the oversized t-shirt she was wearing.

I was only able to see their father sigh and stand up before the scene shifted again.

This time they were in the closet. I had seen this scene before, in Wren's dream. This time I was able to focus on some of the other details of the dream. The look on his mom's face that said that she didn't know if he was coming back or not, and the way she kept glancing at the closet door like she was waiting for him to burst through at any moment. This dream was longer than Wren's.

I heard a single footstep outside of the door, followed by a bright blue light before the door was opened. Wren and Jackson screamed before realizing that the opener was their father. They quickly embraced them and he picked Wren up, resting her on his hip.

"We need to move, now," he ordered. His wife nodded gathering up Eli without hesitation and holding onto Jackson's hand as they moved quickly out of the room.

The scene changed, but I had seen enough. The nightmares tended to get progressively worse, and I did not want to see any more tonight. I slowly phased out of Jackson's head floating a few minutes before becoming visible. I stared at Jackson. Now I had seen two of the same scenes from both Jackson and Wren, there was no denying now that the dreams were, in fact, memories, I just didn't know how that could be possible.

I had been so wrapped up in my thoughts; I hadn't noticed Eli wake up.

"Danny Phantom!" he exclaimed quietly. I jumped, startled by the sudden voice in the silence.

"Um…hi," I waved to Eli.

'_What am I doing?' _I wondered putting my hand down.

"You know me?" I asked him. He nodded, adjusting himself so that he was sitting up in bed.

"You've been fighting the war," he stated.

"What war?" I asked.

"The bad war," he said, crossing his legs in front of him.

"How am I fighting the war," I questioned, trying to get more information.

He opened his mouth to speak but suddenly realized that he had given away too much information and clamped both hands over his mouth, shaking his head.

"Is that all you're going to tell me?" I tried again. He nodded not removing his hands. I sighed, I should have figured, but I suppose he did give me a little information.

"Okay, well... goodnight, Eli," I told him. The look of surprise on his face told me that I had definitely misspoken by using his name.

'_Well, that can't be good,' _I thought as I quickly phased out of the room.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

Danny POV-

So, somehow, I am fighting a war that I don't know about.

It's a relatively disturbing thought, especially considering that it wasn't some figment of Wren's imagination, it had been confirmed three times.

But how?

Needless to say, this question buzzed around in my head for several hours of the night.

'_Maybe I should ask them more about their parents…or maybe I should ask someone else. Or maybe there isn't a war at all, maybe this is just some kind of scheme to catch me off guard,'_ I considered, but, as possible as that was, this seemed way too well-thought-out, even for Vlad.

'_The alien race idea is sounding better and better,'_ I shook my head rolling over again.

'_I need a snack,' _I decided, getting out of bed to go to the kitchen. I looked down both sides of the hallway before turning invisible and phasing through the floor. I became visible again in the kitchen, setting my feet down on the cold tile floor and getting a poptart out of the pantry. Instead of rattling the plastic of the poptart, I easily phased the pastry out and put in on a plate.

I had just finished breaking all the crust off of my poptart when I heard a squeak on the stairs. Not a minute later, Wren wandered into the kitchen.

She was startled when she saw me seated in the dark.

"Couldn't sleep?" I guessed and she nodded, pulling a poptart out for herself.

She quickly ripped open the metallic plastic before putting the poptart on the plate and removing the edges, and then, eating the edges before the poptart itself, which she broke in half, and in half again.

Exactly the same way I eat my poptarts, which I found funny because Jazz and Sam had always thought it was weird. I finished my crust and broke the fruit filled part in half, and then took the half and divided it into a forth, eating that part first.

I looked at the clock on the oven. The glowing red numbers read that it was 6:00 in the morning, and, on cue I heard my parents and Eli get up to make breakfast.

My mom flipped on the light and jumped when she saw Wren and I enjoying our poptarts.

"Well, you two are certainly up early," she pointed out scooping coffee into the percolator.

"Couldn't sleep," we answered at the same time, and I yawned as if for emphasis. My mom nodded as the coffee machine gurgled loudly and coffee began to pour into the pot. My dad and Eli came in next.

My dad took out the bag of mini powdered doughnuts from the cabinet and grabbed four for himself and two for Eli.

My mom poured my dad and herself some coffee and sat at the other end of the table.

"Danny Phantom was in my room last night!" Eli exclaimed joyfully, his mouth full of powdered doughnuts. My eyes widened.

'_Shit!' _

Wren POV-

"Danny Phantom was in my room last night!" Eli told us, powder all over his face and hands. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what almost looked like fear on my dad's face, the kind of look of fear you get when you go into class and realize that you had homework you didn't do.

"He WHAT?!" my grandparents exclaimed in unison.

"I can't believe that awful ghost was in our home! Didn't you set the ghost shield last night?!" my grandma exclaimed looking at my grandpa who clearly didn't remember if he had set the ghost shield. But I found her reaction weird. In the future, my grandparents and Danny Phantom are allies. What could have happened to make them go from hating him to working with him?

"He knew my name too," Eli added cheerfully. Now that was weird. In the future, of course we know Danny Phantom, but he never calls us by our names, and even more, why would he know our names here?

'_Maybe he has talked to my parents in the future,' _I thought hopefully.

"I swear, I'm going to rip that ghost apart molecule by molecule!" my grandpa exclaimed, and my dad visibly paled.

"Did he say anything else?" I asked Eli once my grandparents had left the room, yelling about tighter security.

"No," Eli said, a little too quickly.

'_Great,' _I thought noticing the guilty look on his face, '_Eli let something slip about the future.' _

Eli stuffed the rest of the doughnut in his mouth and ran upstairs to brush his teeth, leaving me alone with my dad again.

He seemed to be deep in thought as he stared at the table.

"Why do they hate Danny Phantom so much?" I wondered quietly.

"He's a ghost. They're ghost hunters," my dad stated, a little bitterly.

"But that's not how it's supposed to be…" I thought, realizing a second to late, out loud.

"What?" my dad asked.

"I mean…um….uh…what happened to make them hate him?" I covered quickly. My dad studied me carefully before answering my question.

"He was framed for several things and now they consider him a 'menace to society,'" my dad said, then he stared at me, "How do you guys even know who he is?"

Crap. I'm really not good at lying on the spot.

"I've well…um…heard about him at school since we got here. It seems to me that almost everyone considers him a hero," I lied, managing to smooth out the stutter in my voice.

"Almost everyone, with the exception of my parents, Valerie, and somehow unanimously elected mayor," my dad remarked.

I vaguely knew who Valerie was. But I remember that she had moved out of Amity Park right before the war really began, convinced that Phantom had been the cause, but as far as the mayor went, I wasn't exactly up to date on my Amity Park elected officials history.

"Who's the mayor?" I asked.

My dad scowled in distaste, "Vlad Masters."

I nearly choked to death on my last bite of poptart.

Vlad Masters?!

The same Vlad Masters who becomes dictator and calls in the ghosts to take over the world? The same Vlad Masters that everyone in my family hates with a burning passion? The same Vlad Masters that _wants _my family?

That Vlad Masters?! He was the mayor of Amity Park?!

I tried to keep my rising panic under control but something tells me it still was obvious on my face judging by the look my dad was giving me.

Thankfully, that was the moment Jazz decided to come downstairs, giving me the excuse to run upstairs to finish getting ready for school.

Danny POV-

"What's up with her?" Jazz asked, pointing at Wren who had just run out of the room in panic.

I shook my head, unable to say anything else.

She knows who Vlad Masters is, and is clearly terrified by him. But, again, I didn't know how.

Sure, Vlad Masters is a well-known billionaire, but the only thing that would inspire that kind of fear would be to know what he is actually like, and Wren couldn't know that. Or, at least, Wren _shouldn't _know that.

But she did.

And now I had even more questions to find the answers to.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

Wren POV-

If there's anyone who hates Vlad Masters more than me, it's my brother, but I didn't want to get him upset, so I didn't tell him.

But I had to tell someone or I was going to explode.

James passed me in the hall and I grabbed him arm pulling him behind a corner.

"Ow, what was that for?" he whined, rubbing his arm.

"Do you know who the mayor is?" I asked him.

"What? What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Do. You. Know. Who the mayor is?" I asked again, punctuating my words.

"No, who is it?" he answered finally.

"Vlad Masters," I said in a quiet voice. His eyes widened.

"Are you sure?" he breathed and I nodded, "How is it safe for us to be here if _he's _here?" James voiced my concerns.

"I don't know. But he probably doesn't know who we are, at least not yet, but there had tohave been some reason that my dad chose to send us here," I told him.

"Yeah…I've never known your dad not to have a plan…but it would have been nice if we had been let in on it," James said.

"I know, but maybe he couldn't tell us…with the time stream and all…so maybe we have to move around this carefully," I said.

"Yeah, maybe," James nodded. Then the bell rang, we were late to third period. James and I both took off in our opposite directions heading to class.

Danny POV-

I saw Wren drag James into a corner and I realized that this would be the perfect opportunity for me to spy on her.

"No, who is it?" I heard James ask from where I was invisibly floating about ten feet away.

"Vlad Masters," Wren breathed, still looking worried. I saw James's face turn pale in fear. And as the crowds of the hallway suddenly realized that they needed to go to class quickly, I didn't hear his reply.

"…How is it safe…?" I heard James say. They were afraid for their safety? What threat could Vlad possibly hold to them?

"I don't know…but there had to have been some reason for my dad to send us here…" I heard Wren's quiet response. So her dad was the one who sent them here. From where?

"…I've never known your dad to not have a plan…" James whispered back.

"…maybe he couldn't tell us…time stream…move…carefully," Wren told James so quietly I barely saw her lips move. But what was it about the time stream? That didn't make any sense.

James agreed with her and the bell rang, so they each ran their separate ways.

'_Great, now I'm going to be late too,' _I thought as I flew off towards my next period class.

I used my next class to tell Sam what I had seen last night and what I had heard a minute ago.

"So it's true…whatever it is," she acknowledged.

"Yeah, and Vlad is somehow involved," I added.

"Vlad? How?" she asked me.

"You should have seen the look on her face when I mentioned him this morning, and then I overheard her talking to James about him, and he seemed pretty freaked out too," I replied.

"Do you think that maybe Vlad is the 'he' who wants her family?" Sam asked me. I hadn't really considered but, but with her saying it out loud, it seemed like a likely option.

"Maybe. But why? And how would he even know them?" I wondered.

"More college friends?" Sam asked with a smirk.

"Not funny," I replied, but she did have a point.

'_Maybe I should have Tucker research my parents' college class,' _I deliberated.

"But what war is it? Or is it something that hasn't happened yet?" Sam questioned.

"What do you mean 'hasn't happened yet'? Do you think they can prophesize the future or something?" I wondered.

"Maybe…" Sam trailed off like she was thinking hard about something, but, whatever it was, she wasn't going to let me in on her train of thought.

Suddenly my ghost sense went off. I sighed. Thankfully, Sam and I were in study hall and thankfully Mr. Roberts always allows me to leave. I raised my hand and Mr. Roberts simply nodded without sparing more than a glance up from the thick novel he was reading.

Wren POV-

I was totally spacing out in third period. I mean, who wouldn't be? I just realized that the biggest antagonist of the future has been ruling this city since before I got here, and my dad probably had some ulterior motive of sending us to this time period.

'_He probably expected me to screw it up,' _I thought to myself. But why that would make a difference, I didn't know. What could I possibly do that would impact Amity Park so far into the future? And if that had not been my father's intent, why hadn't he picked a different time or place for all of us to go?

'_No,' _I decided. There was a purpose to us coming here. I just have to find out what it was.

Then I saw something wiz passed the window, and I recognized the black and white ghostly form immediately.

Danny Phantom.

Remembering my thought from earlier about how he may have talked to my parents in the future, I realized that this would be a good first step to finding out what goal my dad put me here to accomplish. So, I raised my hand and asked to go to the bathroom.

I walked briskly out the side doors of the school to the football field where I had seen Danny Phantom a moment ago. I prayed that I hadn't missed him, and, sure enough, I hadn't.

He was directly over the goal post fighting a ghost I knew to be Skulker. Not wanting to be spotted by the villainous ghost, I ducked behind the bleachers.

The battle between the two ghosts raged on, and neither seemed to be able to hit the other, that is, until Skulker got a lucky shot and blasted Danny Phantom in his shoulder blade, sending the younger ghost out of the sky and creating a crater in the grass.

It must have been a really powerful blast because, Phantom was unconscious.

Suddenly, in a blinding blue-white light Danny Phantom was no longer unconscious on the ground. Instead, my dad, Danny Fenton, lay unarmed and unprotected before the ghost.

'_No, that can't be right,' _I shook my head, blinking hard just to make sure I wasn't seeing things. I wasn't.

'_My DAD is Danny Phantom?!' _ I processed. Now things were making sense. The green eyes here and in my dream, his high position in the rebellion, the secrets, and even the fact that I was in this decade.

'_My dad is Danny Phantom,'_ I thought again, this time with a little more clarity. I looked back up to where he was still unconscious on the field, just in time to see Skulker loom over him, blaster cannon raised and pointed at my dad.

"DAD!" I yelled on impulse, getting out from under my hiding spot under the bleachers.

Skulker looked in my direction, surprised, just surprised enough to be caught in a familiar beam of light.

I looked to the source. It was my mom. With a Fenton Thermos.

'_Shit! Please tell me she didn't hear that!' _I pleaded.

"What did you say?" she asked, with an eyebrow raised, walking towards me as she capped the Fenton Thermos.

"Um…I…um…" I panicked, having no idea what to say to her because of my damn inability to lie easily under pressure. There was a groan and both my mom and I turned to see my dad trying to get up, holding his shoulder.

"Danny!" she exclaimed, casting one more look at me before running over to help him.

It took my dad only a second to register that my mom was there, and another second to question what I was doing there.

"I don't know," my mom crossed her arms, "I was getting ready to ask her the same question."

"Um…" I gulped again, still unsure what to say, rubbing the back of my neck and biting my lip as I struggled to mentally formulate a convincing lie.

The look on her face changed to one of realization.

"Oh my God…" she covered her mouth with her hand and stared at me, "Oh my God. It all makes sense now…You are…" she trailed off but I understood where she was going. She had figured it out.

I nodded.

"And he is…" she pointed to my dad. I nodded again. She mouthed "Oh my God" again and then another thought crossed her mind.

"Wait…am _I…_are we…?" she asked and I nodded again, "Oh my God," she said again, sitting on the nearby bleachers.

"Are we what? Will somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?" my dad asked.

"Danny, don't you get it?" my mom asked after a minute, "She can't see the future. She is the future."

It took a moment for him to let that sink in.

"So you're from the future…" he said and I nodded in response, "…but what does that mean for us?"

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Clearly, I was going to have to spell this out for him. My mom, on the other hand, did not resist the urge; she rolled her eyes at my denseness.

"Dad, you may want to sit down," I sighed. Then he got it. His eyes widened and he staggered a little on his feet from the shock, quickly taking the spot next to Sam on the lowest seat of the bleachers.

They were both silent for a few minutes and I stood awkwardly, not knowing if I should sit down or not.

"Wow," my dad said finally, "That's…wow…we're…" he gestured between my mom and himself and I nodded yet again. My dad let out a deep breath running his hand through his hair before finally beginning to regain his composure. "We need to talk," he decided finally, "Start from the beginning."

So I sat down next to my parents and started from the beginning.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

Danny POV-

"Okay…um...my family consists of you guys, my brothers, my Aunt Danielle, Thomas, Mikey, Aunt Jazz, Uncle Peter, who she met at Yale, Carrie, and Grandma and Grandpa Fenton," she started. Of course, I knew all of this but I let her go on.

"Wait so Danielle comes back," Sam asked for clarification, and Wren nodded, "Jazz will be thrilled when she finds out she got into Yale. What about my parents?" she wondered.

"They left when Amity Park got taken over by the ghosts, I haven't seen them since, but they didn't like me very much anyway…of course they always gave expensive gifts…" Wren said thoughtfully.

"That sounds about right," Sam shook her head in frustration, "Continue. When did the ghosts take over?"

"When I was seven. Vlad brought all these ghosts from the ghost zone to be his army. They started with Amity Park and then they took over the world," she continued. I had suspected as much but the actualization of my thought was still frightening. "…Dad, you are the leader of the resistance. Mom, you handle weapon distribution, Tucker is in charge of hacking, Dash is…was, chief of police, but is now on the front line of defense with you," she continued.

"Wait, so Dash and I are friends?" I wondered.

"Yes," she nodded.

"That makes what he did to you ten times worse. I'm going to kill him," I growled, my eyes turning green.

"Don't," she shook her head, "he doesn't know what he did, and I'm over it anyway. It just really creeped me out at the time. Plus, I'm pretty sure James wouldn't forgive me if I let you kill his dad," she smiled.

"Who's his mom?" Sam asked.

"She doesn't live here, but her name is Liz," she told us.

"Who does Tucker end up marrying?" I wondered.

"Umm…you wouldn't believe me if I told you," she smiled awkwardly.

"Who?!" Sam asked, a little louder.

"Paulina," Wren told us finally.

"No way! Are you serious?" I questioned, unable to picture Tucker with Paulina.

"I told you you wouldn't believe me," she shrugged, "Their daughter is staying with Paulina, I'll see if I can point her out to you, but she definitely inherited her dad's love of technology."

"Wow, invite her over to my house tonight, we'll have fun watching him guess who her mom is," I laughed and Wren smiled.

"Okay, breaking time stream rules all over the place today. Clockwork is going to be pissed," I grinned.

"Wren Elizabeth Fenton, watch your language!" Sam scolded.

Wren suddenly embraced her, taking Sam off guard.

"Sorry," Wren sniffed after a moment, rubbing her eye, "You just have no idea how much I miss hearing that," she rubbed her eye again, "How did you know Elizabeth was my middle name?" she asked after a few seconds.

Sam didn't seem to know the answer to that question; "Maternal instinct, I guess…" she shrugged, putting her arm around Wren's shoulders.

"So Clockwork brought you here?" I asked, breaking up the mother-daughter moment.

"Yeah, you asked him to," he told me.

"Why?" I inquired.

"I had been wondering the same thing until about ten minutes ago," she told me.

"So…we didn't tell you?" I guessed.

"Nope," she glared at me.

"Don't look at me like that! I'm sure we had our reasons, and you know now so…" I defended. How can I be defending a decision I haven't even made yet?

"So…do you think I have ghost powers?" she asked quietly, wringing her hands in her lap and looking up at me. I sighed; something tells me I will get manipulated a lot by her.

"I don't know," I admitted, "I guess there's one way to find out." I changed into my ghost form and stood up. Wren stood up too, grinning in anticipation.

"Try not to expect too much, I don't know if this will work," but I could tell everything I just said passed from one ear through the other, "I'm going to make you invisible. You see if you can hold it, okay?"

Wren nodded vigorously. I made myself invisible and touched her arm.

"That feels weird," she giggled.

"You get used to it," I told her, "Now I'm going to let go. Focus on holding it." I slowly removed my fingers from her arm and, right away she became visible again. She was disappointed.

"Sorry, Wren," I told her.

"One more time?" she asked.

"It doesn't work like that," I told her.

"Pleeeease, just one more time?" she pleaded, "I know I can do this!" I sighed. I definitely will be getting manipulated a lot in the future.

"Okay. One more time," I agreed, once again touching her arm. Wren took a deep breath, closing her eyes. "Okay, I'm letting go." I told her and removed my fingers. The invisibility faltered and I almost told her that it had not worked when she became invisible again.

"Is it working?" she asked anxiously.

"Yep," I told her, shaking my head with a smile on my face, "It works."

"Really?!" Wren asked in surprise, opening her eyes and causing her to lose focus. The invisibility faded and she was once again standing in front of us, grinning from ear to ear.

"So now you can train me, and Jackson!" she bounced up and down on her heels.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I held up my hands, "Who said anything about training you? If I didn't do it in the future something tells me I won't like that I'm doing it now."

"But that is kind of your decision," she smiled at me hopefully, and then changed to a more serious look, "I know you don't want me to help fight the war, but, I'm tired of being helpless. I want to know that my parents—that you guys are alright, and that I did everything that I possibly could to help. Please, please, let me do this."

Wow, three for three, she is definitely good at that.

"Alright," I agreed finally. She squealed in delight and hugged me.

"Thank you, daddy," she grinned.

"Yeah, yeah," I chuckled, "now go back to class so your mother and I can talk." Wren giggled but obeyed running back inside to return to class.

Once she was gone, I let out a deep breath.

"Wow, we're going to be parents, is that as weird to you as it is to me?" I wondered.

"Definitely," Sam agreed, leaning back against the bleacher behind us, "and you know she just played the 'daddy's little girl card' three times, don't you?"

"I knew I was just manipulated, I just didn't know it had a name," I chuckled again.

"Yeah, it's basically the first thing all daughters learn regarding their dads, I'm just surprised you fell for it so easily," Sam told me.

"Yeah, well…when I was in Jackson's dream last night…he had a memory of the day she was born…and I guess I was just thinking of when I saw myself holding her…" I smiled involuntarily.

"Hmm…how did I look?" Sam smirked.

"Well, for someone who had just had a baby you looked pretty damn good," I smirked back and Sam laughed.

"Jazz is going to want to know that Carrie is her daughter," I said, voicing the thoughts that were running through my head.

"Yeah, they're a lot alike: preppy, obsessed with getting into Yale, don't like my clothes," Sam laughed and I laughed too, "Except Carrie must spend a lot of time with us in the future because she has great taste in music."

I laughed again, and suddenly realized how close my face was to Sam's. I studied her face. Her perfect smile, the little dimple she gets on her cheek when she laughs, and her beautiful amethyst eyes. I pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and she paused giving me a bemused smile. I leaned in quickly, and kissed her. Sam kissed me back, wrapping her arms around my neck in response.

This kiss was so much better than any fake-out-make-out we had ever had. Because now, I wasn't just kissing my best friend, I was kissing the girl who I now had absolute confirmation that I would be with for the rest of my life.

We pulled apart and she smiled at me, leaning her head on my shoulder.

"So how do I look in the future? I don't get fat do I?" she asked in mock horror.

"No, you look great," I grinned.

"Paint me a picture," she mused.

"Kind of like…Jennifer Connelly…but with prettier eyes," I told her.

"Hmm…Jennifer Connelly, I'll take it," she laughed like she was trying it on for size, "What about you?"

"Me?" I questioned.

"Yeah, who do you look like in the future?" she poked me.

"Hmm…John Stamos," I decided.

"You look like John Stamos?" she arched an eyebrow at me, not buying it.

"Yes," I insisted.

"Hmm…with or without the mullet?" she continued.

"You wish I had the mullet?" I smirked at her, making her laugh.

"Oh yeah, totally," she laughed again, "But something tells me our kids wouldn't forgive you for that."

"Maybe not, but something tells me, that with me fighting a war and all, they won't have enough embarrassment in their lives," I asserted, and Sam chuckled again, "So, it's decided then, I'll grow a mullet."

"Business in the front, party in the back?" she smiled.

"Oh yeah," I laughed, pretending to slick back a mullet, making Sam burst out laughing.

Suddenly the football players ran out onto the field, which meant that it was already fifth period.

"Should we go tell Tucker he has a daughter?" Sam asked.

"We shall," I said, extending my elbow for her to hook on to. She did, looping her arm through as we headed to lunch.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Danny POV-

"Why are you guys so couple-y all of a sudden?" Tucker asked as we approached the lunch table, his eyebrow raised. Wren, who was already there, giggled knowingly.

"Long story," I laughed sitting down next to Sam.

"I've been trying to get you two together for years, what finally did it?" Tucker questioned.

I shared a look between Sam and Wren, trying to find the best way of telling him.

"Let's just say, they got a glimpse of their future," Wren spoke up with a smirk. Tucker studied her with a confused look on his face.

I leaned closer over the table, lowering my voice.

"You remember how none of them were on any databases?" I asked and Tucker nodded in response, "That's because they're not from this time period."

"So you're from the future?" Tucker asked Wren, "That's awesome! What kind of technology do they have in the future?"

The three of us groaned in unison, he wasn't getting this.

"Not the point Tucker," I sighed, and then he looked confused again. It's funny for such a technology genius; he can be as dense as me sometimes.

Wren leaned over and whispered something to him, and suddenly his eyes widened.

"Wait what? She's your daughter?!" he exclaimed a little too loudly.

"Shh! Yes," I hushed him. Tucker looked between the three of us with a smirk.

"I see the resemblance now. Wow, three kids, you guys must have gotten busy," he grinned.

I blushed and I saw Sam kick Tucker from under the table.

"Eww!" Wren squealed, "So not something I want to think about," she shuddered for emphasis.

"She does she have...you know," Tucker said after a minute. I knew what he meant. Ghost powers.

I nodded, and he laughed.

"Haha, not only do you have three kids, but you have three kids with superpowers. You guys are going to have your hands full," Tucker laughed and Sam kicked him again.

"Well, don't you want to know about your future," I smirked. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sam trying not to laugh.

"Um...yeah, I guess," he said almost like a question, "What's my future like?" he turned to Wren.

"Well," the corners of her lips turned up, "you have a daughter."

"With who?" he wondered looking around the cafeteria.

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," the three of us said in unison.

"Why, who is it?" he asked, seeming to be a little worried now.

"Okay," you see that girl over there, Wren pointed to the popular table where a dark skinned girl with hair pulled in a ponytail and glasses was watching the conversation between the popular kids, clearly feeling like she didn't belong there. Tucker saw her and nodded.

"Well, that's Sasha, your daughter," Wren said and Tucker looked at Sasha thoughtfully, "And she," Wren continued, "Is sitting next to her mom."

It only took a minute for Tucker to realize thy Sasha was sitting between Paulina and Kwan, leaving only one possible person for her mom to be...

"Paulina?! Really?" he asked in disbelief and Wren nodded with a shrug. I understood why he was so surprised. In the few times Tucker had asked her out, she had both turned him down and humiliated him, but the more I looked at Sasha, the more traits I saw of both of her parents. She had a skin tone between Paulina's and Tucker's, but her long hair was all her mom, styled and pulled back (and something tells me her mom had something to do with the pink baby tee she was wearing too). And the poor eyesight, of course, came from Tucker.

"Hmm..." Tucker mused, getting the look on his face that he gets when he has an idea. And I knew what it was too.

"Dude, I wouldn't," I warned.

"How do you even know what I was thinking?" he exclaimed.

"Because I know you. Trust me, it's not going to work, she doesn't know," I told him.

"Yeah, I don't think you guys really connected until you were in college anyway," Wren told him.

"Well I'm going to try," he stood up, walking to the popular table. I shook my head, knowing where this was going.

I couldn't hear what he said, but I saw Paulina raise her hand. I cringed as I heard the crisp snap of her slap across his face in the now silent cafeteria.

Tucker came back to the table, a bright red hand print across his cheek.

"Told you so," Wren and I said in unison. Tucker looked between us.

"Wow, she is your daughter," he remarked and Sam, Wren, and I laughed.

_'Wren laughs like Sam_,' I realized with a smile.

I thought back to that night she was telling me about her family.

"_So sometimes he can be kind of strict...but he's also funny and always makes time for us,_" she had told me. At the time, I hadn't known that she was talking about me, but it made me feel good that, even while fighting a war, I make time for my kids.

"_My mom is sometimes even stricter than my dad,_" I smiled. I believed it. Knowing Sam, she probably would be the one handling all the discipline, even when she scolded Wren for language earlier.

_'Except for driving, and boys,_' I decided. Wren won't be dating until she's like forty. I may not be her dad yet, but I'm even overprotective of Jazz and she's my older sister.

I remembered Wren telling me about how she was good at soccer and liked to paint, both of which she must have gotten from Sam. Sam is one of the most athletic girls in our grade (she just chooses not to join teams or play sports) and she is also very creative. I mean, I can draw, but not like Sam, she even designed my Danny Phantom logo. Wren said she gets her impulsiveness from me. Of all the things I could have passed onto my daughter, that would not have been what I would have picked.

On the other end of the spectrum is Jackson. He must have inherited his lack of ability to play sports from me, yet another thing I would not have chosen to pass on. But, on the upside, Wren said that he gets good grades and thinks things through; those he definitely got from Sam.

Then, of course, there is Eli. The bright orange hair he has must have come from either my mom or Sam's mom and skipped a generation, but other than that he's too young for me to start pinning genetics on. But…I'm pretty sure that my dislike of the Packers and hate of all things Vlad rubbed off onto all three of my kids, not that I really have an objection to that.

"…so that means James is Dash's son right?" heard Tucker ask, coming out of my thoughts.

"Yep, him, his sister Gracie, and his brother Robby. And Carrie is Jazz's daughter, and Mikey and Thomas are Danielle's sons, and Brenda is Kwan and Star's daughter…you know they're not very hard to spot, most of them are sitting with their parents," she told him.

"Does Jazz know yet?" Tucker asked me.

"Nope, we're going to tell her after school, which will be perfect because I think Carrie is over anyway to do a project with her. Want to join us?" I grinned.

"Are you kidding? And miss her reaction when she finds out that she gets into Yale, gets married and has a daughter? Never," he laughed. "So is Dash as big of a jerk in the future as he is now?"

"No, actually, he was the chief of police before the war started, but, for as long as I can remember, you guys have always been friends.

"Wow, I can't even imagine it. Of course, now it makes sense why you stood up for us," Tucker pointed out. I had almost forgotten about that, now, it almost seemed like forever ago.

"Yeah, well…nobody insults my family," she blushed sheepishly. Not letting people mess with her or her family, definitely a genetic trait, but one that she got from both Sam and I. And, of course, her response of instinctually coming to Sam and me after we had saved her from Dash also made sense now. She ran to us because she knows that we can keep her safe.

Which is exactly what I should be doing. I knew I would have to train her, but what I didn't know was how this would affect the course of the war.

But there is one ghost who would.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

Danny POV-

Tucker, Wren, Sam, and I walked back to my house, and Tucker had his video camera in his hand to record her reaction. We walked up the front steps and went into the house.

When we saw who was sitting on my couch, we all froze.

Vlad Masters.

Sam and I instinctively stood in front of Wren who was shaking, but whether her reaction was from fear or anger, I didn't know.

"Hey Danny, welcome home," my mom smiled cheerily at me, but I noticed that she cast Vlad a dirty look out of the corner of her eye. Ever since my mom had found out that Vlad was "in love" with her (gag) when we were oh-so-coincidentally dumped at his Colorado house, she has, thankfully, hated him almost as much as I do. My dad, however, was blissfully unaware of the fact that Vlad wants to kill him and marry my mom.

"Danny boy," he bellowed, "Look who stopped by!" he slapped Vlad on the back. Vlad managed to glare at my dad, before turning his well-rehearsed fake smile to us.

"Daniel, Samantha, Tucker, it's nice to see you again. And this must be one of the exchange students that your parents were telling me about," he stood up and walked over to us, "Hello, Wren; I'm Vlad Masters, mayor of Amity Park."

This time, the look on my daughter's face was anger, pure, unadulterated anger, as she reluctantly shook his extended hand.

"Nice to meet you," she replied through gritted teeth.

Sam cleared her throat, "Um…Danny, don't you think it's time we go upstairs and work on our English project," Sam suggested.

"Oh what a wonderful idea, we all know how badly Daniel needs to work on his studies," Vlad smirked, "Oh, and it was so nice meeting you Wren."

The way he looked at her enraged me, and now I was shaking in anger. Sam put a firm hand around my arm, which clearly said 'not-here.' I put myself between Vlad and Wren and allowed her to go up the stairs first as I followed behind.

Still shaking I nudged everyone to her brothers' room where Jackson, Eli, Jazz and Carrie had holed themselves up.

All Jackson, Jazz, and Carrie were on the bed and I heard the sound of running water coming from the attached bathroom, which meant that Eli would not hear our conversation. I'm sure that had been the results of Jackson's planning skills. On the bed I could see that Carrie was in hysterics as Jazz held her tightly.

"Danny, what's going on?" she wondered.

I took a deep breath, composing myself. Jackson only needed to take a single look between the four of us that had just walked in to find out what had happened.

"Wren what did you do?" he asked in an accusing way.

"It wasn't her fault, but the cat is out of the bag," I announced trying to remain calm.

"Which cat?" Jazz asked, now turning the accusation onto me.

"Both," I said.

"Wait, what's the other cat?" Jazz and Jackson asked in unison.

"Okay, Jazz, Jackson, there is something that you both need to know," I sighed. "Jazz, all the kids that came with the exchange program are from the future where Amity Park is at war, a war run by Vlad. Carrie is actually your daughter and Jackson, Wren, and Eli are me and Sam's kids," judging by the look on Jazz's face, I'm not sure if she wanted to panic, scream, or cry as she studied Carrie and honestly, I didn't have time to care what she did either way. Jackson was glaring daggers at his sister for spilling the beans but he also glanced between Sam and I like he was gaging our reactions.

"And Jackson," my firm tone captured his attention immediately as he focused on me, "as your father, there is something that you need to know about me."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before transforming into my ghost self. When I opened my eyes, I knew they were glowing green and the look on Jackson's face seemed like he was almost ready to pass out. Sam recognized it too. She took his arm, guiding him back onto the bed so that he could sit down.

Jackson blinked, and then his eyes darted to his sister.

"There's more…" she mumbled quietly.

"Apparently," I told him, "Ghost powers are genetic." I swear Jackson's eyes looked about ready to pop out of his head.

Eventually, he took a deep breath, calming himself, "So what do we do now."

….

Vlad left after dinner which none of us had attended, and once Eli was safely in bed, we moved the planning council to my room.

"Okay," I paced the carpeted floor, "Since Vlad was here, than I'm assuming he knows something, but likely not everything. Even if he does that gives us at least two days before he will make a move. Which means that I have two days to talk to train you to use your powers and to talk to Clockwork about what we need to do next," I thought out loud, still pacing.

"So here's what we're going to do," I said turning to Jackson and Wren, "And I don't want Eli to know about _any_ of this, do I make myself clear," I ordered in a hushed tone.

"Yes sir," they replied immediately.

"Tonight, Carrie, you will stay over here. Jackson, you will make sure Eli goes to bed and stays asleep without him leaving that room at all, got it?" Jackson nodded, "Okay, then. You all can shoot right?" I asked them, and Carrie, Jackson, and Wren nodded in response. "I'll kill your Aunt Danielle for that later, but for now, you will each be well armed. Tucker, I'm going to need you to go home and protect Thomas and Mikey, it's possible that Vlad will try to use them because they probably inherited ghost powers too."

"Wait who is Danielle?" Jazz asked at the same time Wren, Jackson and Carrie said, "Aunt Danielle has GHOST POWERS?"

"All these questions can be answered later," I told them and they became quiet again.

"So, Jazz, you guard Carrie, Sam, you guard Jackson and Wren, who will be guarding Eli, and Tucker you guard Thomas and Mikey. Everyone got it?" I clarified.

"What will you be doing?" Sam asked.

"Once my parents are asleep, I'll use the ghost portal to go talk to Clockwork and determine what we need to do next," I told them.

"I'm coming with you," Wren announced.

"Me too," Jackson chimed in.

"No, you're not." Sam and I said in unison.

"But—" they tried to argue but I cut them off.

"No, and that is my final answer. Because, for one thing, I can cover more ground on my own, and for another, it's possible that Vlad will be expecting me to go to Clockwork and I don't want to put either of you right into his hands, understood?" I instructed.

"Yes sir," they mumbled quietly.

"Don't worry; I'll be in constant contact through the Fenton Phones, which I'm assuming you all know how to use?" Carrie, Wren and Jackson nodded. Sam fished in her bag, before handing out Fenton Phones to everyone; I placed mine in my pocket, exhaling now that my plan was finally laid out.

"Okay, _now _I will answer your questions. Okay, first off, Jazz, Danielle is biologically our younger sister but she is technically my clone. She was created by Vlad so that he could try to achieve the perfect half-ghost son when I had refused to join him. So Danielle has the same DNA as I do and the same ghost powers, but the fruit-loop must have mixed some wires at some point because Danielle is physically two years younger than me and is, obviously, female," I told them.

"Where is Danielle now?" Jazz asked.

"I don't know. I saved her from being melted into ectoplasmic goop by Vlad about six months ago and none of us have seen her since," I replied.

"Danny, your life should be a TV show," Jazz shook her head after a few minutes.

"Tell me about it," I sighed.

"They could cast John Stamos…" I heard Sam mutter and I burst out laughing, Jazz, Carrie, and our kids looked at me like I was crazy, but Sam simply smiled before she started laughing with me.

After several more minutes of laughing, I was able to get calmed down again. I looked around the room. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six pairs of eyes stared at me.

"I'll be right back," I told them, phasing through the floor, through the living room, and down into the lab. The lights were off and only a small white light on top of the power box to the portal flickered weakly.

I changed back, opening the weapon cabinet that hung on the wall. I pulled out One. Two. Three. Four, five. Six. Ecto-pistols for Tucker, Jackson, and Wren, wrist rays for Sam and Carrie, and, my mom's favorite, a double edged ectoplasmic quarterstaff for Jazz. Finally, I pulled out the Boo-merang and the keys to the specter speeder setting them on the table next to the portal, before I phased back through the ceiling and up to my room.

The living room was now dark and so was the rest of the first floor which mean that my parents had gone to bed. I arrived in my room, distributing the weapons.

"Okay. My parents are in bed, so I need to leave now," I told them. Sam nodded, standing up, so that she could close the Ghost Portal behind me.

Wren suddenly embraced me.

"Be careful," she pleaded with tears rimming her eyes.

"I will, I promise," I told her, "I'll be back by morning." Wren nodded sadly and Jackson put his hand on her shoulder before leading her out of the room, but he couldn't help but spare a concerned glance in my direction to.

I gave him a reassuring nod and suddenly, Sam and I were alone in my room.

I held out my hand, which she took knowingly as we phased down into the lab.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" she asked.

"No. But are any of my ideas ever good?" I asked he trying to lighten the mood, it didn't work

"Danny I'm serious!" she exclaimed, "If something happens to you, there is no future, there is no winning the war, there is no Wren, Eli, or Jackson either!"

"I know," I whispered solemnly, lifting her chin for her to look at me. I kissed her. It was a sort kiss but a passionate one.

"I should be back by three. If I'm not back by four," I told her, handing her the keys and the boomerang, "You know what to do."

"What about them?" Sam gestured with her chin to the upstairs.

"Make sure they stay here," I told her. We shared a long look and I finally looked toward the portal with a sigh.

"I need to go now," I told her and she nodded.

"You better not die, or I will kill you," she ordered.

"I won't I promise. Close the portal immediately after I leave and make sure that Wren doesn't get the bright idea to follow me," I said.

"Okay, I'll see you at three," she asked…almost fearfully, which is something that I rarely see from Sam.

"Three," I agreed before I flew through the swirling green portal into the Ghost Zone.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

Wren POV-

I followed my parents down into the lab, and Jackson followed me.

"I should be back by three. If I'm not back by four…" I heard my dad say as we crouched at the entryway to the basement. Then I heard the jingling of keys, "You know what to do," he continued.

I couldn't see them from where I was, but I guessed that he had handed her the keys to the Spector speeder.

"What about them?" I heard my mom ask in response. Again, I couldn't' see her, but I guessed she was talking about Jackson and I.

"Make sure they stay here," my dad ordered. No surprise there.

"I need to go now," my dad said after a long sigh.

"You better not die, or I will kill you," my mom told him. And knowing her, she probably wasn't kidding. She actually might hire a ghost to hunt him down after he died and repeatedly kill him. I can imagine he'd reform and then get shot. Reform then get stabbed. Reform then get strangled. For all eternity. And my mom would just say "This is what you get for dying."

"I won't, I promise. Close the portal immediately after I leave and make sure that Wren doesn't get the bright idea to follow me," I scoffed quietly. He was right, but still.

"Okay, I'll see you at three," my mom asked hopefully, with a kind of fear that I have rarely heard from her.

"Three," I heard my dad agree. The coolness left the room and I knew he had left. Then, I heard the doors to the ghost portal with a dull thud and my mom sighed.

"Wren. Jackson. You two can stop hiding now," she called.

"How does she always _do _that?" Jackson wondered throwing his hands up.

"Talent," my mom said, appearing at the bottom of the stairs, "Now, are you going to goback upstairs like you're_ supposed_ to, or are you going to wait down here with me?" she asked, already knowing the answer as we walked down toward her. She sighed, "That's what I thought."

Danny POV-

There was no trap set for me right when I came through the portal. In fact, I met nothing. No one. Not a soul (pun intended).

Why is that weird at twelve o'clock in the morning?

Well, for one thing, ghosts don't sleep so they are always doing something. And also, even though I don't _always _have altercations with ghosts when I come into the ghost zone (although it does happen pretty frequently) there _is_ always some lost soul drifting about, trying to find a place to call their own. Tonight? Zip. Zilch. Nada.

One thing about the Ghost Zone is that it is always changing, which, usually, makes it incredibly hard to navigate. However, Clockwork's tower is the one exception to the changing scenery. It is always stationary, and always visible from anywhere in the Ghost Zone, which definitely made my job a little easier.

However, just because it can be seen, doesn't exactly mean that it's close.

Right now, the tower was just a blip in the distance. And, without a constant system of measurement in the Ghost Zone, that could be anywhere from 8-120 miles (13-193 km).

'_Well,'_ I sighed, _'I better get flying.'_

The flight took probably about 30 minutes, but it felt even longer because, like I said, there was no one around, giving the entire ghost zone a stagnant feel, like it was waiting for something. And, that's _never _a good thing when I'm involved.

Clockwork's tower is, essentially just a giant grandfather clock surrounded by giant, fragmented clock gears, and hallways sticking off of the frame at obscure angles, with a pair of heavy wooden doors at the base.

'_Should I even bother knocking?' _I considered as I floated down to the doors at the base, '_He already knows I'm here.' _The doors were probably just a formality anyway, so I decided not to knock and followed the long winding staircase up to the top of the tower.

It would have been nice to have just phased through, but, unfortunately, I couldn't. The Ghost Zone, behaves, for ghosts, like the normal world behaves for humans. Meaning that ghosts can't pass through objects.

I guess not being able to phase through things is supposed to preserve some sort of privacy, otherwise you would have ghosts in other ghosts' houses all the time, but, at the moment, it was just annoying.

Finally, after ten flights of stairs, I made it to the top room of Clockwork's tower.

"Would it be too much to ask for an elevator?" I questioned.

Clockwork, who had been floating in the center of the room, ignored me.

"So, are you enjoying spending time with your children?" he asked, changing into an older form. I don't know why he bothers asking questions when he knows how I'm going to answer them.

"Because I enjoy the conversation," he sighed, answering my unspoken question.

"What should I do about Vlad?" I stated.

"You did not come here to get my opinion, because even if I _do _give you good advice, you will inevitably end up ignoring it at some point. But I suppose, it's not your fault, it is human nature to act upon impulse despite _my _better judgment," he continued.

"So…you're _not _going to give me advice?" I questioned.

"No, _I, _am not," he replied, before floating into another room.

"What? Seriously?" I looked around the empty room in confusion. Well that sure was a big help. I flew all the way here for nothing. I almost went back down but I suddenly heard a voice from the stairs.

"Clockwork," the voice called, "Would it be too much to ask for an elevator?" the owner of the voice finally climbed the last stair and stood in the room. It took a few seconds for him to scan the room before he noticed me.

"Well…this is awkward," he chuckled nervously rubbing the back of his neck.


	18. Chapter 18

**My computer has gotten very confused by me putting the future in the present…but here's another chapter despite the protests of my laptop. **** (oh, and just for clarification, I wrote this so that Phantom Planet never happened)**

Chapter 18:

Danny POV-

"So…Wren let the cat out of the bag, huh?" my future self asked.

"Well, Sam figured it out too," I shrugged.

"I should have guessed," he chuckled rolling his eyes, "But I guess the other question is, did _you_ let the cat out of the bag?"

"That cat is so far out of the bag that it just got run over," I replied.

"And Wren puppy-dog-eyed you into training her, didn't she?" he guessed.

"Oh yeah," I nodded. "So you knew they had ghost powers?"

"Well, I never officially tested it, but, yeah, we had our suspicions," he told me.

"What do you mean?" I wondered.

"You know how women get sick when they're pregnant?" he asked me.

"Yeah…" I answered slowly.

"Well, most women don't puke ectoplasm," he shook his head, remembering it, "Oh, and apparently, ectoplasm stains tile, and, rugs, and the toilet, so be prepared to replace the entire bathroom."

"Nice to know," I grimaced, "So…when do you…I…we?...tell mom and dad?" I questioned.

"When Danielle comes back. It was kind of a big shock for them at first…and you actually have to transform like five times before it starts to sink in…but hey, that's pretty good considering…them," he laughed and I laughed too.

"But something tells me you didn't come her to talk about that," he said after a minute and decided to sit on the floating green couch.

"No, I came to figure out my next move," I sighed, sitting on the other end of the couch.

"Why? What happened?" he pressed with an urgency in his voice.

"Technically…nothing, except that Vlad decided to come over for dinner and took too much of an interest in Wren," I told him. He pressed his lips together.

"That means he'll probably wait about a day and a half to two days before attacking," he considered.

"That's what I figured…but that doesn't give me a lot of training time," I told him.

"No…it doesn't…maybe I should come help you…?" he pondered.

"No, something tells me that would be a bad idea. You have your own Vlad to deal with, plus, that would just conveniently put us both in one place," I shook my head.

"Well, the future Vlad, as far as I know, hasn't had much—if any contact with your Vlad, so anything he does know will be slim. Tell you what, keep Wren and Jackson out of school tomorrow and train them somewhere Vlad won't know about…if you can get mom and dad out of the house, the ops center would probably be a pretty good spot…if not, try the alleyway behind the school. Don't use the one by the Nasty Burger or the one you usually use to change, both of those are bugged," he suggested.

"Okay, that sounds good," I replied, "Now, I said, pulling the Fenton Phone out of my pocket. I know two people who probably would like to talk to you."

He grinned and I pushed the connector button on the side.

"Hey Sam, you there?" I asked.

"Yeah Danny, I'm here, is everything okay?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah. Everything's fine. Wren and Jackson are there with you aren't they?" I expected.

"Yeah, why?" she asked.

"Put them on, I have someone who wants to talk to them," I smirked.

"Hello?" I heard Wren's voice, followed by Jackson who joined the conversation on another set of Fenton Phones.

"Hey guys," the future me said.

"Dad?!" Wren exclaimed.

"Dad is that you?!" Jackson asked.

"Yeah guys it's me," he chuckled.

"Oh my gosh, Dad I miss you so much!" Wren cried.

"What are you talking about? You've seen me every day," he grinned looking at me.

"Oh…yeah… no offence," she called to me.

"Yeah, yeah, I see how it is," I rolled my eyes and the older me smirked at my response.

"Well—Wren—you certainly did a great job of keeping the secret. What have I told you about the delicate balance of the time stream," he scolded, but from where I was, I could see that he was just teasing.

"It wasn't…all my fault…" she squeaked.

"Yeah, I know. Your mom is pretty good at figuring things out," he smirked and I heard three sets of laughter on the other side of the phone.

"Is everyone okay?" Jackson asked.

"Yeah, everyone's fine," he said, but the look on his face told me it was a lie.

"Why didn't you ever tell us about you?" Jackson asked. The older me looked down guiltily.

"I wanted to, Buddy…but…I figured you'd be safer if you couldn't be used in the wrong hands…I'm sorry you had to find out the hard way," he told them.

"So when we're trained can we come fight the war with you?" Wren asked.

"What? No. It's too dangerous," he protested.

"But—" she tried to plead.

"Not another word on the subject, young lady. I just called to tell you both that your mother and I love you. Tell Eli too, okay," he said.

"Okay, love you too," they answered in unison, but Wren sounded disappointed.

"I'll be with you guys again soon," he promised.

"Okay, bye dad," they replied and then the end went dead.

"Who is it? Who's the one that's hurt?" I asked.

"Jason and Kwan did a raid on a ghost camp. They got caught. Jason didn't make it…and Kwan will probably never be able to walk again," he told me. I vaguely knew Jason, in my time he was just another football player, but judging by the amount of pain of his face, he must have been a loyal ally.

"Oh man. I'm sorry," I sighed.

He shook his head.

"No…ya know, we're at war…you can't save them all…I guess," he sighed.

"Don't beat yourself up too badly," I told him, knowing that is exactly what he was doing, "Sometimes even _we _can't save everyone. Sometimes if things are meant to happen…they'll happen no matter what we do," I told him, but even as I said it, I knew I didn't believe it either. It always feels like there is no excuse for not being able to do anything, when we have all this power, and _should _be able to save everyone.

"Gee, thanks," he said sarcastically rolling his eyes.

Finally, Clockwork decided to come back out.

"Hey, where have you been this whole time?" the older me asked.

"You didn't need me out here," Clockwork stated simply. We both were about to argue, but Clockwork held up his hand.

"You," he pointed to me, "Came here to find out what you needed to do next, and now you have it. And you, he pointed to the older me, came here to find out how your children were doing and get a message to them, and now you have done that. I just managed to save myself some," Clockwork smirked, "time."

Then he vanished again.

"Well, I guess, it's time I left," the older me announced, standing up, "Take care of my…our...kids," he told me.

"I will," I replied.

"Oh, and keep an eye on James…I don't want him to think it's okay to date Wren just because I'm 22 years in the future," he grinned.

"Got it," I agreed. He changed back to human form and allowed himself to fall through the floor. That' how it works in the Ghost Zone. A ghost can't pass through walls, but humans can perfectly fine, which always makes going down, so much easier than going up.

So, I followed his lead, 'falling' the five stories to the ground and then falling through the ground until I was once again floating in the empty Ghost Zone. I looked for my future self but he was already long gone. The Ghost Zone thankfully, hadn't changed drastically, so I was easily able to find the portal, and began the thirty minute flight back home.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

Sam POV-

I sighed as my two oldest future kids came and crowded next to me on the bench at the far end of the lab. The reason I had known they were there, was because, when you deal with Danny silently phasing in and out of places all the time, the slightest scuff of someone's sneaker on the linoleum floor, is a good give away that someone is spying.

Both Wren and Jackson, were obviously tired as the two of them struggled to stay awake, as we waited anxiously, watching the swirling green of the portal.

It was still so surreal to me, and I found it hard to believe that we had only figured everything out this afternoon.

Thinking of one day marrying Danny and having three kids was, a weird thought at fourteen, and weirder still: one of our children is technically older than we are now, and the other is our same age.

I can't say I'm totally surprised, I guess. Everyone _has _been predicting the two of us getting together for years now; I just can't believe it took meeting our future kids to actually do it.

I thought back to what Wren had said earlier about my parents. Sure, I was a little disappointed that I would no longer have a relationship with my parents (not that I really had one anyway) and that they had no relationship with their grandchildren, but I cannot say I was surprised.

My parents had always made it obvious to me their disapproval of Danny, but, I had kind of been hoping that that disapproval did not extend to our children. Apparently not, considering that they leave Amity Park, their only daughter, and their only grandchildren, the second things turn rough.

Jackson laid his head, on my shoulder, his eyes now completely closed. I'm usually not a touchy-feely person, and maybe it's the maternal instincts kicking in, but I put my arm around his shoulder, rubbing his arm.

'_He really looks like Danny when he's asleep,' _I mused, pushing a strand of hair off of his face.

Although Wren, who was seated on my other side, desperately trying not to fall asleep as her eyelids repeatedly threatened to close, definitely acts a lot more like Danny. From what I have been able to tell so far, Wren is the impulsive one. She was, undoubtedly, the one who convinced Jackson to follow her down here (either that or he followed her because he didn't want her to get in trouble). Either way, that tendency definitely reminded me a lot of Danny. She also inherited his blue eyes, which flittered around the room from the door, to the portal, before finally resting on me with an anxious smile.

"Hey," I told her soothingly, sensing her tension, "Don't worry, he'll be fine. He always is."

That didn't calm her down very much, which, I guess I can understand considering I was feeling the same current of anxiety rushing through me. I just knew how to hide it better.

I looked at the digital clock that hung on the wall.

It was 1:30, which meant that Danny had left about 45 minutes ago.

'_He'll be back soon…' _I convinced myself, '_Maybe it wouldn't hurt to get some sleep…' _but right after I had thought this, the Fenton Phones made a beeping sound.

I immediately pressed the talk button, assuming that something must have gone wrong for Danny to be calling me so early.

"Hey Sam, you there?" I heard him ask.

"Yeah Danny, I'm here, is everything okay?" I answered quickly. Wren was now completely alert and anxiously focused on my conversation, while Jackson was just groggily beginning to wake up because I had stirred him when I had moved to answer the Fenton Phones.

"Yeah. Everything's fine. Wren and Jackson are there with you aren't they?" I breathed a sigh of relief, before taking a second to wonder why Danny was asking for Wren and Jackson, and another second to be slightly impressed that he had already inferred that they were there with me. Wren had a mixture of intrigue, confusion, and 'kid with hand in the cookie jar' guilt on her face.

"Yeah, why?" I answered.

"Put them on, I have someone who wants to talk to them," I could practically hear the smirk in his voice. Jackson was now more aware, and confused, as I put the Fenton Phone between them.

"Hello?" They both questioned to the unknown person on the other end of the conversation.

"Hey guys," it took me only a second to recognize the voice as what I would expect to be Danny's older voice, the smirk just as prevalent in his remark at it had been in Danny's. His voice was a lot deeper, but still retained certain Danny-ish qualities to it. And honestly, it was kind of sexy. It sent chills down my spine.

"Dad?!" Wren asked at the same time Jackson asked, "Dad is that you?!"

"Yeah guys it's me," he replied with a chuckle.

"Oh my gosh, Dad I miss you so much!" Wren exclaimed.

"What are you talking about? You've seen me every day," he replied and I could tell he was joking.

"Oh…yeah… no offence," Wren smiled sheepishly directing her response at _my _Danny.

"Yeah, yeah, I see how it is," Danny replied feigning being offended.

"Well—Wren—you certainly did a great job of keeping the secret. What have I told you about the delicate balance of the time stream," older Danny scolded playfully. Even though I could tell he was joking, Wren seemed troubled at the fact that she hadn't been able to follow his orders to her.

"It wasn't…all my fault…" she managed to squeak out.

"Yeah, I know. Your mom is pretty good at figuring things out," he replied, that one was directed towards me and I couldn't help but laugh. Wren and Jackson laughed too, relieved that he wasn't actually upset with them.

"Is everyone okay?" Jackson asked.

"Yeah, everyone's fine," he sighed, and my breath caught in my throat. There is almost no one who knows Danny better than me, and that, was a lie. Thankfully, neither of the kids seemed to notice, but it left me to wonder who had been injured or maybe even killed.

"Why didn't you ever tell us about you?" Jackson wondered with a bit of an accusatory edge to his question.

"I wanted to, Buddy…but…I figured you'd be safer if you couldn't be used in the wrong hands…I'm sorry you had to find out the hard way," he answered and I could tell by his tone of voice that he was genuinely guilty for keeping Wren and Jackson in the dark for so long.

"So when we're trained can we come fight the war with you?" Wren suggested excitedly. I sighed, already knowing how _that _question would be answered.

"What? No. It's too dangerous," he replied with finality.

"But—" Wren argued, sticking out her bottom lip, which was probably a kind of habit for getting what she wants.

"Not another word on the subject, young lady. I just called to tell you both that your mother and I love you. Tell Eli too, okay," he told her.

Wren sighed, obviously disappointed, yes, she is most definitely Danny's daughter.

"Okay, love you too," Jackson and Wren responded together.

"I'll be with you guys again soon," he promised hopefully.

"Okay, bye dad," they stated before the conversation was ended. They were both silent for a few minutes, mulling over their conversation with their dad.

"What's the point of even letting us be trained if he won't let us do anything to help!?" Wren exclaimed throwing her hands up in frustration before plopping back down on the bench.

I didn't have an answer for that, other than, obviously, they don't want either of them to get hurt.

Even Jackson seemed a little bummed as he slumped back on the bench before resuming sleeping once again.

"Wren," I told her, "Why don't you get some sleep," I told her, "You have a big day tomorrow. And I'll let you know if anything else happens, okay?"

She nodded, and leaned her head on my shoulder too, easily drifting off to sleep. I glanced at the portal.

'_Now, I guess, all I have to do is wait for Danny to come back,' _I thought.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

Danny POV-

I arrived home about twenty minutes before three in the morning, but the whole flight home, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. And when there is absolutely no one around, that is a very unsettling thought.

Sam grinned at me as I flew into the room, the green light reflecting off of her features before I closed the portal behind me, leaving us both in only the light of the flickering, emergency light behind me. I smiled, noticing that both Jackson and Wren were asleep, leaning against Sam's shoulders.

She gently handed Wren over to me, and I phased her up into Jazz's room, where Jazz and Carrie were both passed out on Jazz's bed, before I flew back downstairs to get Jackson. I flew him upstairs too…that was a little weird, considering that he is taller than me.

Finally, I went back downstairs to talk with Sam, who was waiting for me with her arms crossed.

"Danny, who dies?" she asked me. Wow, she knew that the future me had been lying over the Fenton Phones.

"Jason. And Kwan will probably be paralyzed for the rest of his life," I told her.

She nodded slowly.

"So what's the next move?" she wanted to know.

"Well, he told me to keep them home from school tomorrow and train them, but…I still have this bad feeling," I confessed.

She clearly didn't know what to say, she merely pursed her lips in the nervous way she sometimes does.

"Do you have a bad feeling about this too?" I asked her. Sam is always the most intuitive person in our group, hell, she's the most intuitive person I know, and if she feels like something is wrong, then I would go by her instincts.

"Kind of," she said quietly.

"Okay, so what are you thinking?" I asked her.

"Well, I've got a plan, but you're not going to like it," she sighed.

"How do you know I'm not going to like it?" I questioned.

"Not _you _the future you," she clarified.

"Okay…what is it?" I asked her.

She sighed, "Well, I just have this feeling that…maybe nothing is going to happen."

"And, how exactly is that a bad thing?" I wondered.

"Because, if nothing bad is happening in _this _time period, then that means that Vlad is pulling all of his resources, probably including his past self, into the future to launch a full-scale attack. There's no way that the future you can handle that all by himself," she told me.

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence," I remarked sarcastically.

"Come on Danny, you know it's true. You will be overwhelmed and when you try to save everyone, you will be playing right into their hands. Then they will either kill the future you, or more likely, capture him and make him watch while they destroy our kids and you, which would wipe out his existence too," she guessed. I shivered. As much as I hate to admit it, she was right, that is probably what would happen, which means that we do not have much time.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" I repeated.

"Right. So you, me, Tucker, Wren, Jackson, and Jazz, and maybe Carrie, are going to go into the future and help. Hopefully, that will be enough. If not, we're doomed anyway," she told me. It was definitely a crazy risk, with way too many variables, but it was just crazy enough that it might just work.

"My name better be on that list," I heard a voice. I stiffened and looked over to the doorframe where the voice had come from, only to see, none other than Dani casually leaning in the doorframe like she had been there all along.

"Dani!" we exclaimed in unison, and she grinned, flying over to give us each a hug.

"So what's this about some kind of raid into the future?" she asked us.

"Um…all of our kids from the future have come to Amity Park and are staying here in secret while their parents are fighting a war against future Vlad. And then Sam and I found out about them and now we're planning to go help," I told her.

"Ooh fun," she grinned mischievously, and then her face softened to one of silent consideration, "Do I have kids here too?" she asked.

"Umm…yeah, they're staying at Tucker's house—" but before I could finish my sentence, she flew out of the room. I looked at Sam, who looked as confused as I am. Not even a minute later, Danielle was back.

"Aww, my boys are cute. If we're protecting them, I'm soo in," she pounded her fist into her palm, "And I think I might know where we can get some back up."

"We're listening," I pressed.

"Well, I've been around the ghost zone a couple dozen times since I left and made a lot more allies than you, and something tells me that they won't like how future Vlad has taken over…" she explained.

I hadn't even considered bringing other ghosts into this…but it might work, especially if we could get those ghosts to recruit their future selves too.

"Great idea. Get them on our side," I told her.

"I'm on it. Just make sure that you don't bring my boys into the fight," she told me.

"Don't worry, we won't they're too young," I assured her.

"Good. If I'm not back in an hour, something's wrong. I'll see you guys then," she told us slamming her fist on the 'Open Portal' button, before she dove into the ghost zone. I hadn't meant for her to leave right this second, but, I supposed the sooner she recruited our troops the better.

"Okay. Anyway, if we go in for a strike tomorrow, that doesn't leave me much time to train Jackson and Wren," I pointed out.

"Trust me on this one," Sam smirked, "You're not going to need much time."

I didn't know what she meant by that, and I didn't need to.

'_Okay,' _I thought to myself, '_That just leaves me with the issue of sneaking who know how many ghosts four halfas and four humans into the ghost zone_ early, _so that the ghosts have time to recruit their future selves and we have time to run the plan by everyone else. Great.'_


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

Danny POV-

Dani returned an hour later with about thirty ghosts: some that were my allies, like Frostbite and Dora, a lot that I didn't even know, and some that absolutely can't stand me (such as, Ember, Johnny 13, Kitty, and even Walker and some of his goons) but either these ghosts must like Dani or must hate Vlad more than they hate me. (I'm surprised that some kind of ghost sensor hadn't gone off yet) Either way, it wasn't exactly a comfortable situation for me.

We all phased up into my room so that I could explain the situation and tell everyone the plan.

Half an hour later, all the ghosts had been given a pair of Fenton Phones (which, to my surprise, actually worked despite the fact that they are intended to filter out ghost noise) and were ready for the mission.

Eli's school starts early, so this is about the time my parents would be getting up to get him ready for school. A dull thud down the hall let me know that my suspicions had been confirmed. All thirty ghosts turned invisible as footprints stalked quietly past my bedroom door.

When they were gone, and safely out of earshot, Ember decided to make a remark.

"So dipstick, you two had three kids?" she sneered. I rolled my eyes and ignored her.

We all remained relatively quiet while we waited for my parents to leave, the ghosts only occasionally asking for points of clarification.

Finally, the front door closed and the Fenton RV revved up out front.

"Okay, Sam, go wake Wren, Jackson, Jazz and Carrie, I'm going to call Tucker and get him over here," I announced. Sam agreed walking down the hall to wake everyone, as I connected myself to Tucker through the Fenton Phones.

"Wha—" he muttered groggily through the communicator.

"Dude, get over here. Things are going down," I told him, ending the conversation, just in case we were being tracked, I didn't want to say anything more than that.

Sam walked into the room with a still-fully-dressed-from-yesterday Wren and Jackson. Who looked utterly exhausted. I felt bad, they had only gotten about four hours of sleep (of course, they could have gone to bed when I told them to), but the two of them, took one look around the room and stiffened at the sight of all the ghosts, watching them suspiciously.

"Wow, those are your kids," Johnny remarked.

"Umm...what's going on?" Wren asked just as Jazz and Carrie raced into the room.

Jazz had to clamp a hand over Carrie's mouth to keep her from screaming.

"Okay, we're doing things my way," I told everyone who had just come in, "Which means, all of you," I gestured to the ghosts, "Better go to Clockwork's now. We'll be behind you shortly." The ghosts nodded, phasing through the floor, in order to go through the ghost portal. I only hoped that Clockwork would let them go.

"Dad?" Wren asked suspiciously.

Suddenly, my Fenton Phones beeped. And I answered them.

"Dude, I'm outside, what now?" Tucker asked me.

"Wait in the alley two houses down, not the one right next door," I told him, cutting off the conversation.

Then, I heard my parents come home.

"Okay, ready for the best acting exercise of your lives?" I smirked, "Wren and Jackson go get changed, Sam you go get something of Wren's to wear, Dani, when Sam is done getting dressed, take her and go wait with Tucker. I'm going to change too. Jazz and Carrie, go downstairs for breakfast. Be completely normal, we'll be down in a minute," I ordered and everyone split up like I had just told them to do. I quickly threw on a black t-shirt, not bothering to change out of the jeans I had on, I ran a hand through my hair, to make it look a little more like I had been sleeping on it, and left my room to go downstairs. Jackson was already downstairs, and Wren was only a minute behind us. The tension was so thick that you could practically see it hanging in the air, but my parents didn't seem to notice.

We finished our breakfast, and quickly waked out the door, saying our goodbyes, and stopping at the alleyway.

I needed to keep my parents out of the lab, so I called my mom's cellphone.

"Hello?" she answered on the second ring.

"Mom! There is some ghost chasing a school bus on Eighth Street!" I exclaimed into the phone.

"Okay Danny, we'll handle it, just get to school, okay?" she asked.

"Okay mom, bye," I replied, hanging up. My mom didn't seem to notice that Eighth Street was nowhere near my walk to school, but it didn't seem to matter as the Fenton RV peeled out only a minute later.

Then, Dani and I fazed everyone down to the lab.

The ghost portal had been left open from the ghosts that had left earlier, and now it reflected on our faces.

"Dad, you still haven't told us what's going on!" Wren exclaimed.

"You wanted to fight," Sam supplied, "You're going to fight. We're all going to fight, the same as with all those ghosts and their future selves. It's the only shot we have."

"So we're going to the future?" Wren clarified.

"Yes, we are," I told them. Now, everybody get into the Specter Speeder. I got in first, getting everything ready for us to take off.

Sam POV-

"But we haven't been trained!" Wren protested, before we all got in the Specter Speeder.

I grabbed two white and black Hazmat suits off of the wall. They were exactly the same as the one Danny had used when he got his ghost powers, complete with his dad's face stamped to the front of each one.

I quickly ripped the decal off and handed Wren and Jackson each a suit.

"Here, put these on," I told them. They obeyed, quickly putting the suit on over their clothes.

"Why are we putting these on?" Wren asked, "How will this change the fact that we have powers we don't know how to use?"

"Just trust me, okay?" I told them, "When the time comes, you'll know what to do. But you're going to be happy that you're wearing these."

They were still, obviously confused, but they didn't argue anymore before they got into the Specter Speeder. Danny looked back at them in the rear view mirror, giving me a little smirk, before he clicked on the engines.

"Hold on, everyone. Next stop, Clockwork's," he announced, giving the Specter Speeder full speed as we raced through the portal into the ghost zone.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

Wren POV-

I was ecstatic! Quite honestly, I'm not sure I've ever felt this kind of anxious excitement before, which is most definitely saying something considering that I come from a world in a warzone.

But, at the same time, I felt a little worried and nervous, not only because we a joining a war when we have not been properly trained, but, even more, because I'm afraid that my dad will send us home. I am sick and tired of waiting on the sidelines for something to happen, I only hope that my _past _parents will be able to convince my parents that Jackson and my involvement is important.

This sense of waiting, combined with my lack of sleep at such an early hour in the morning, made me remember our first vacation to Disney world, right before the war started. I had been young, but I still remember being so excited that I stayed up most of the night before. Then, early the next morning we all drove to the airport. It had been my first time on a plane too, and the airport security and crowds fascinated me. I remember when we took off, seeing the ground below get smaller and smaller, and wondering what it would have been like to fly outside the plane, never knowing, of course, that I actually had the ability to do so all along.

"Are we there yet?" Jackson asked his favorite question, which has always been designed to annoy my parents. They huffed, apparently, it still works. Yep, just like our trip to Disney.

"What do you think?" Danny asked sarcastically.

Jackson smirked, recognizing this classic response. But I knew he wasn't just trying to get under their skin, we both wanted to have a sense of normalcy with everything in our lives changing so drastically, this was just his way of obtaining that.

I have never been in the ghost zone before, my dad always considered it too dangerous (how it's more dangerous than a world taken over by ghosts, I didn't know), so it was all kind of strange to me. The sky swirled with neon green and doors floated past in a blur, however, even with this dimension being so alien, at the same time, it was familiar…at least to our world after the war started. But, for whatever reason, we met no ghosts (and maybe it was because Aunt Dani had rounded up some who had already gone ahead into the future to contact their future selves) but to me, it almost seemed…too quiet.

In the distance, a tower, made to look like a grandfather clock, with various screws and parts sticking out at every angle, loomed over the otherwise plain, door-filled landscape. That, I guessed, is where we were going. With the speed we were going in the Specter Speeder, the tower rapidly approached, until we were really close, to the top floor, and going _really _fast.

I cringed, waiting for the impact that seemed inevitable at the speed we were going with space between us and the ghostly brick wall getting smaller by the second, but it never came.

I opened my eyes to see that we were in…a living room?

The eight of us climbed out of the Specter Speeder, and I yelped in surprise when I began to sink through the floor. I held onto the ship, to keep myself from going all the way through, however my ankles still dipped through the floor.

My dad and Aunt Dani quickly transformed just as Clockwork appeared. He regarded me with a quick, knowing look, the same one he had given me when we had first arrived in the past Amity Park, before turning to my dad.

"You know, I don't really appreciate you two sending a horde of ghosts to my house at this time of night, or driving a ship into my living room for that matter," he said.

"Oh come on, you knew I was going to do that," my dad remarked.

"Still, it's just common courtesy. Anyway, I guess I will open up the portal to the future for you to drive through," Clockwork sighed, bored.

"Do you want to come into the future and fight with us?" my dad asked; although he seemed to already know the answer.

"I'm too busy straightening out the new wrinkles in the time stream," he glanced at me, "Maybe next time," Clockwork smirked.

"Hopefully, there won't need to be a next time," Dani quipped.

"Hmm…" was all Clockwork said, still smirking, as he studied each member of our party, "The portal will stay open for thirty seconds and you will arrive with enough time to discuss your plan with your future selves. Which, you will need to do. He is not going to let his children into the war so easily," Clockwork told us.

My dad nodded, "I know. Thanks, Clockwork."

Clockwork waved a hand, brushing off the gratitude and opening a portal in the center of his living room.

The rest of us quickly piled back into the Specter Speeder, before my dad plunged us through the open portal.

There is nothing quite like the feeling of time travel. It takes your insides and turns them to jelly, and stretches you through the different time periods like a rubber band, and then, all at once, it's over, and you are in another time.

I looked up to the sky. Dark purple. I sighed, I hadn't expected anything else, but it would have been nice to know that _something _had been done to make a difference.

"We need to get this thing out of sight like now," I informed them. They may be my parents, but they do not know this time, so, for now at least, I'm in control.

"Got it," my dad acknowledged turning into a dark alley, "we'll leave it here. But that means we are going to have to go on foot. Where is your house?"

"I'll show you," I said, getting out of the speeder and ducking into the shadows. If there is anything that I know from having lived in a warzone for a many years as I have, it's how to stay under the radar.

The rest followed my lead, clinging to the grimy brick wall, weapons ready. My dad simply rolled his eyes, turning invisible, and taking the lead to make sure the coast was clear.

My family lives in a neighborhood that had not existed in the past, only a little outside of downtown, and approximately a five minute walk from Fenton Works. But, as it turned out, we did not need to go all the way to my house, because the Fenton Works Ops Center (AKA HQ) was full of busy people, so busy, in fact that we were not acknowledged until we made it all the way to the top where my entire family and my dad's top advisors were clustered around a table studying a map. My dad plotted strategies, but still had not noticed that we now stood in the room.

At this point, I was sweating. He was going to be mad. I mean, he was _usually _mad when we interrupted a meeting, but interrupting a meeting in a time period we were supposed to have been avoiding so that we could go into a war he did not want us in? That was practically a death wish.

"Mind if I help?" Danny asked my dad. Ten pairs of eyes snapped up. Almost everyone was gawking; especially his advisors, but my dad's eyes blazed green. I gulped, that meant that he was _beyond _furious.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carrie embrace her mom, but my dad wasn't embracing us. Instead, he stepped away from the table, walking towards us.

"What the hell are you guys doing here!?" he shouted in anger, but I could also tell there was a relief and happiness at seeing us.

"We have a reason," Sam spoke up, but at that same moment, my mom broke away from the stoic advisors and other family members to embrace us.

"Thank God you're all okay! But what are you doing here?" she asked us, holding me by the shoulders and looking me dead in the eyes.

"It wasn't my idea," I muttered quietly.

"Hmm…I'll bet not, however, I'm sure you didn't protest _too _much," she smirked knowingly, and then she turned to Danny.

"What's the plan?" she asked, putting one arm around Jackson and one arm around me.

"Sam!" my dad exclaimed, "They're not supposed to _be_ here! There is no plan. They're going back, now!"

My mom simply gave him one of her famous looks and he shut up immediately.

"Danny, you said it yourself, we need help. And when help suddenly appears out of nowhere you want to send it back?" she argued.

"Yes, we need help, but not from our untrained _children _and our past selves!" he replied.

"Um…just so you know, we're not alone," Dani added, and I noticed her future self smirk on the other side of the table.

"Oh?" my dad questioned, looking honestly perplexed.

"I recruited about forty ghosts from our time period, who were sent ahead to recruit their future selves," Dani announced.

He wanted to argue. He really, really, wanted to send us back, but Danny spoke up before he could.

"Listen," he said, "After we spoke, Sam made a good point. We think Vlad is pulling all of his resources, including his past self into this time period so he can launch a full-scale attack. And, after that, just knowing how he is, he will take you as prisoner, and make you watch as he kills everyone in my time period, including Wren, Jackson, Eli, and myself, before you ultimately disappear. So, we figured, rather than let that happen, we could change the game by bringing all of us here with some. And, yeah, maybe they're not trained exactly, but they at least know how to use the weapons. It at least gives us a fighting chance. Even if we fail, we're doomed anyway."

My dad was thoughtful for a minute, looking over my brother and me. I could almost see his heart breaking at the decision placed before him, but finally he closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath before once again opening his eyes.

"Okay," he said finally. I smiled, and Jackson and I went to hug him. He fully returned the hug, holding us tightly.

After a few minutes, he loosened the hug, but still kept an arm around each of our shoulders, before looking at Danny.

"What do you suggest?"


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23:

Danny POV-

After a while, we finally had a strategy mapped out on the table. It felt weird for me to be working along-side myself and several other adults, who I actually only knew from the past, to create a plan to stop Vlad.

"So we'll form a perimeter around here," my older self suggested, indicating on the virtual map an area for us to surround with our ghost troops, who, had yet to arrive from their meetings with their older selves, and, it was beginning to worry me, "And we'll come at him from all sides."

"What about his troops?" the older Dash asked, "They will just continue to regenerate."

"They are all spurred from a single ghost that is under Vlad's control or manipulation, if we can find that ghost and take him out, then the rest will disappear too," my older self replied, "Now there are two places that ghost will be: either in the crowd with the rest of the duplicates, in which case we might be able to take him out with the frontal assault, or, and unfortunately I think this might be the case, he is somewhere, separated from the fighting where Vlad can more easily manipulate him and where he is less likely to be caught. In this case, our troops will merely be serving as a distraction, fighting them off, while we send another search party to kill the main ghost. Do I have any volunteers?"

Several adults, although I didn't pay attention to who, raised their hands.

Suddenly, some of the ghosts we had sent earlier appeared in the room, a few accompanied by their older selves.

"Where is everyone else?" I questioned, realizing the group that floated before us now was not even half of the original one we had sent, even including some of the older versions of these ghosts.

"Captured," Walker said. That single word sent more fear through me than any threat that had ever been uttered to me, "They're being questioned now."

"By Vlad?" my older self guessed and the ghosts in the room nodded solemnly.

I cursed, knowing what would happen next, and several of the adults in the room turned to look at me, wondering what was wrong. That is, except for my future self, he already knew.

"He's going to change his tactics. He knows we're here. He's going to go to the past," I announced. The concerned parents in the room, the ones who knew their children were still there and, were now in even greater danger gasped, staring at my future self, hoping he had a new plan for keeping them safe.

"Okay, new plan," he answered their silent prayers, "We're still going to need most of you here. Just because Vlad is gone doesn't mean that the war is going to pick up and move. In fact, it will probably be stronger than ever, making up for the fact that Vlad is gone, and also attempting to serve as a diversion so that Vlad can sneak back to the past, undetected. Which means, I'm still going to need that search party, and also several ghosts to go with them."

The now-reluctant volunteers raised their hands.

"Good," my older self appraised, thinking, "Now, I don't expect the prisoners of war to give everything up immediately, so, while he's questioning them, we have time to protect our children and our past selves."

"And how are you going to do that?" a woman asked, I'm pretty sure that she was Paulina from the future. She still had a slight accent to her voice, but it had faded a little with time. She was still pretty, but in a more worldly, womanly way. The older Tucker squeezed her hand, attempting to calm his wife.

"Well, obviously," my older self smirked, "I'm going back, along with my wife, my children, and the little party from the past in this room."

"I want to come too!" several outraged voices exclaimed. My older self merely held up his hands to indicate for them to calm down.

"I need the rest of you here or there will not be a world for all of us to come back to. Now, you can't all go back, because that could cause irreplaceable damage to the time stream. The only reason I am going back is because I am already a recognized figure and, I am the only one who will be able to convince people of the imminent threat, plus, I can't possibly cause more damage than my kids have already done. Now, I promise that I will protect your children, but, I will also protect your past selves, because, if they die, which, I would guess is Vlad's intent, _you die, _and your children never exist, so, I need you guys to cooperate," my older self glared at the crowd.

Finally seeing his logic in this, the group of disgruntled rebels muttered their agreement.

"Now, is there anyone who would allow their children to fight?" my older self asked.

As I had anticipated nobody volunteered their children to join the war.

"Man, you know I've always been fighting right by your side, so it only seems right that my daughter should do the same. Plus, Sasha knows tech, she has her weapons with her, and she knows how to shoot," the older Tucker volunteered. Paulina looked ready to explode at her husband's suggestion that her only daughter fight, but, after the two shared a long look, Paulina finally sighed, her shoulders sagging a little in defeat. The older Tucker rubbed her back, whispering something in her ear and giving her a kiss.

"James will fight," Dash offered his son next, "As much as I don't want him to, I know he will, so, I guess he can join the war." Dash cast a look at Wren, like she was the reason his son wanted to join in the violence, and, remembering what my older self had told me earlier, maybe she was.

"I'm in," Carrie volunteered herself. Both of the Jazzes bit their lips, afraid for her to be joining the war, but, then, the two shared a look, a silent agreement from my Jazz to the future Jazz, that she would keep Carrie safe.

Seeing that no one else was willing to risk the safety of their kids, my older self nodded curtly.

"Alright. Now, we don't have much time. Let's get out of here, begin the attack the second we are gone," he ordered. The group of people expertly filed out of the house, quietly going their separate ways down the street and ducking down dark alleys in order not to be caught by the ghosts.

"Where'd you park?" my self asked me.

"Alley on Fifth and Main," I replied. He nodded, transforming into his ghost form. Dani and I followed his lead. Then, the three of us flew the rest of our time-traveling group to where I had parked. I was grateful that it was still there. I was also grateful for another familiar face floating in the alleyway.

"So you'll need a portal back," Clockwork stated knowingly. Without another word, a portal back to the present was created behind him, "I will give you as much of a head start as I can, but even I cannot hold back Vlad forever."

"Thanks, Clockwork," my older self and I said in unison. The old ghost nodded as we all climbed into the specter-speeder.

In seconds, we were through the portal, and, after yet another stomach churning time travel experience, we were in my basement in 2013.

I was the first one out, taking the stairs up two at a time and pushing open the basement door into the kitchen.

"DANIEL JAMES FENTON!" I heard my exceptionally angry parents exclaim. I sighed, even with the fate of the future on the line; it would seem that my most pressing issue is my parents. As everyone climbed the stairs behind me, I knew I would have a lot of explaining to do.

And hiding the truth, which I had always been so willing to do in the past, was no longer an option.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24:

Danny POV-

"Umm…hi mom, hi dad," I smiled sheepishly at their furious 'if-looks-could-kill' stares.

"Daniel James Fenton what do you have to say for yourself? Skipping school? All of you? Now what were you all doing in the lab? And who are you people?" she asked directing the last part of her question to the older versions of myself and Sam and to Dani.

"Mom, I would love to chat but we kind of have a more pressing engagement at the moment," I tried to squeeze by her.

As I suspected, it didn't work.

"Danny nobody is going anywhere until we get some answers!" she scowled.

"You're going to want to sit down for this," I sighed, knowing that telling them, telling them everything, was now suddenly inevitable.

My parents didn't move, instead they stood planted to their spots.

"I'm serious," I told them. Still, they didn't move.

"Okay, fine," I sighed, realizing that they weren't going to move from the place they had cornered me in the kitchen. Now, I understood why Clockwork intended to stall, _this _was going to take a while.

"Okay, let me start by saying this. All of the kids from the 'exchange program' are not from Turkey, but, they are actually the future children of the teenagers in this city, who came here to be protected from a war with ghosts that is raging in the future," yeah, even knowing that it's true, it still sounds impossible, and my parents weren't buying it.

"Honestly Danny, tell us the truth, don't make up ridiculous stories," my mom sighed in a dramatic way.

"He's not," my future self stepped forward.

"Who are you?" my mom arched an eyebrow, probably ready to judo-kick him out of her house.

"Daniel James Fenton from 2035, and also Wren, Jackson, and Eli's dad," he smirked. My mom seemed a little taken aback by this and her head whipped between me and my future self, probably studying our faces searching for something that would make our stories appear to be false, and finding none.

Then she turned to our kids who waved sheepishly at her.

"Hi Grandma," Wren rubbed the back of her neck. At this, my mom seemed to recognize the merit of what we were saying.

"Okay, I believe you. But what is going on?" she asked, leaning against the countertop.

"Umm…actually, there's more," I sighed, swallowing the lump in my throat.

"_More _than the fact that my future grandchildren are standing in my living room?!" my mom exclaimed.

"Much more," I nodded, "Like I said, you may want to sit down."

This time, she didn't argue, sitting down in one of the bar stools at the counter next to my dad who was silently absorbing this.

"Umm…this is really hard to say but…umm…do you remember when you were first building the portal and it didn't work the first time you tried it?" I wondered. They nodded in response.

"Umm…" I scrambled to find the words to go on.

"Well, I convinced Danny to go inside of it," the two Sam's said at once.

"You see," my older self continued, "You had put the 'on' button on the inside."

"And I accidentally pressed it," I added.

"Danny, no offense, but that's ridiculous, if you pressed it the amount of electricity would kill you in an instant," my mom interjected.

"Not exactly," my older elf and I said in unison.

"The ectoplasm fused with my DNA, so instead of dying…" my older self and I shared a look, both transforming on cue, "I half-died."

I couldn't read the expressions on my parents faces which, scared me.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, my mom spoke up.

"So…" her voice cracked, "All this time…" she stared at me, "It was you?" I nodded slowly.

"I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you—" I started, but she cut me off, giving me a hug and taking me off guard.

"No Danny, I'm sorry! You had every right not to tell us, not after all the terrible things we said we would do!" my mom told me.

"No, it's okay," I told her, honestly, "You didn't know. I don't blame you."

She looked at our group, "Why do I get the feeling that there is more?" she asked anxiously.

"Because there is. We haven't even gotten to the war yet," I replied. My mom nodded, sitting down.

"Um…Vlad is half-ghost too," I told them, "in fact, he's kind of my archenemy and the dictator of the future."

My parents blinked in surprise at this.

"He got this powers from the lab accident while you guys were in college, and he blames you, Dad. And mom, as you already know, he kind of wants to kill dad and marry you. But um…after he met me, and found out about my powers, he became obsessed with having the perfect half-ghost son, a position which, I obviously refused," I said watching as my dad's shocked face turned to one of depressed betrayal.

"Which," Dani spoke up, "Is where I come in."

"And you are?" my mom questioned.

"Well, biologically, I'm your daughter. But, truthfully, I'm Danny's clone. One of Vlad's 'mistakes' because I wasn't a boy, so he made me do his dirty work until I found out what he thought of me, so I ran away. Several months later I became destabilized, but thanks to Danny, he kept Vlad from melting me into a pool of ectoplasmic goop," Dani told them.

My parents did not know how to respond to that.

"Anyway, in his power-hungry quest, Vlad took over the future, which is why all the kids had to be sent here. But now, he's going to be coming back, so we have to protect all of the future kids and everyone from this decade or the future of Amity Park will cease to exist," my older self finished.

"Agreed," my mom said after a moment of silence, charging up her bazooka, "He's bringing an army right?" she asked and we all nodded, "I expected as much. Now, you all need to get to the school and have them execute procedure Alpha-6. We need to get everyone into the city's ghost safety shelters as quickly as possible. I'll get town hall to begin start the warning alarms," she said, already picking up the phone.

I nodded at my future self, and we all few our group to school. My future self was in the principal's office in a second, telling the principal the situation at hand. The ghost sirens started and I realized that they weren't coming from the school bells, they were coming from the streets where the people had begun to panic. Armed with guns, I saw my parents begin to direct the people towards the public ghost shelters.

Then, the school alarms started. I nodded at the rest of our group who immediately took the hint, running into the nearby classes and ushering students and faculty into the school's ghost shelter.

I flew into a classroom, which, just so happened to be Lancer's.

"Everybody out! This is not a drill!" I told them. The students, who had always been much bigger fans of mine than the middle-aged teacher, immediately moved to get up, but Lancer held up a hand, telling them to wait.

"Why should we trust you you're a ghost," he asked.

"Because you have no other choice. Now, either you get your asses up and get moving, or you can get killed in the invasion. The choice is yours," the kids needed no further explanation and got moving, followed, eventually, by Lancer.

"James wait," I ordered, grabbing his arm.

"Yes, Phantom…um…sir," he asked.

"I've talked to your dad. Yes, I know all about the how you guys came here from the future," I said in response to his wide eyes, "He said you can fight if you want to. But it's still up to you, do you want to fight?" I held an ectopistol in front of him.

"Yes sir," he replied, saluting me, of all things (although, I must say, it felt cool), and taking the pistol from my hands.

"Good. Now, direct everyone towards the shelter," I told him. He nodded, running down the hall.

"I want in!" Dash said, coming next to me.

"No," I stated simply.

"Come on, I can handle it. I've done it before when everybody saved their parents from that pirate ship, plus, you just let James join," Dash whined.

"I have permission from James's father for him to fight in this battle," I said, attempting to leave.

"How? James's father is in Africa," Dash said.

That was wrong, his dad technically was supposed to be in Turkey, but unfortunately, he did have a point, how would I explain that.

"Fine," I relented forking over another pistol, "Don't shoot yourself and DO NOT get yourself killed. We have an intense invasion on the rise and if you get killed bad things will happen to the time stream. Now go, focus on getting everyone down to the shelter." Dash nodded, running off after James. I cannot believe that I just allowed Dash to join, but there was no mistaking that he had the muscle to be fighting with us and he did know how to work an ectopistol. Plus, he's an ally in the future.

Not too far away, I saw Tucker had pulled Sasha away from the scramble.

"Um…hi," she said, not quite knowing how to address her father.

"He knows everything," I came up behind them, getting Sasha's attention, "We have orders from you dad, your future dad, that you can fight in this war, and you can use your technology."

"That is, if you want to," Tucker asked her, seeming a little concerned for his daughter.

"Of course I want to!" she exclaimed, grinning and pulling a lot of technology I didn't recognize out of her backpack, "I have wanted to use these since we got here."

"Wow," I smirked at my best friend, "She is your daughter."

"Sasha, first, help us get everyone into the shelter," Tucker ordered. His daughter nodded and they both took off directing people down to the ghost-proof basement of the school.

'_This may actually work,' _I thought to myself, checking the classrooms to make sure everyone had been cleared out.

That is, until the school began to shake.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25:

Wren POV-

James ran by me, and I was happy to see that someone had informed him of how he was allowed to participate in this war.

"Wren!" he exclaimed, "Where have you been? What are you doing here? You need to be in the shelter!"

"Yeah, right," I scoffed.

"No, I'm serious! It's too dangerous for you out here!" he insisted, trying to drag me. I ripped my hand away.

"No offense James, but I'm perfectly fine and I'm not going anywhere," I stood my ground.

"But your dad will flip if he finds out that you're in the war!" James exclaimed.

"No, he won't, actually. He knows, he said I could do this," I replied, crossing my arms.

He looked at me desperately.

"Please don't do this!" he begged.

"Why?" I asked, honestly curious as to why he was soo insistent that I stay out of the fight.

"Because…because…" he bit his lip, "Because I care about you! I like you, okay? I know I've never had the guts to say it before, but…I really, really, really like you, Wren, and I don't want to see you get hurt!"

I smiled.

"I like you too," I told him, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze, "But there is no way in hell I am going to hide in that shelter like a coward while the rest of my family and the rest of our city in the future are fighting for their lives."

James stared at me, like he still wished that I would change my mind, when, all of a sudden, he kissed me. It was just a short, sweet kiss on my lips, but it was enough to take me by surprise.

"Fine," he said finally, but there was a smile on his face, "But don't die, okay?"

"I won't," I agreed. Now, nearly everyone was in the shelter, and James and I pushed the extremely heavy doors closed, keeping the students and faculty safely inside.

Suddenly the school began to shake. James and I shared a look, and, taking his hand, the two of us raced up the stairs and out of the school.

In the center of the city, where no more people stood on the streets, with the exception of: me, James, my moms, my dads, my brother, younger Tucker, Sasha, younger Dash, Jazz, Carrie, and Dani, and my grandparents.

It wasn't much of an army, only fifteen people, but it would have to be enough.

The earth thundered again, rippling beneath our feet, and I pulled the weapons off of the belt around my waist, noticing that everyone else was doing the same. Suddenly, a giant portal opened over our heads and ghost soldiers came pouring out. My heart sank. Now I know how the Avengers must have felt when the portal opened over New York City and the alien army flooded in.

But we didn't have a team of superheroes or an agency with access to nuclear weapons, it was just us: three halfas, two halfas who had no idea how to use their powers, two football players armed only with pistols, two grandparents with bazookas, two tech geeks with complicated weaponry, two know-it-alls in Fenton Peeler suits, and two strong-willed-dark haired women armed with guns and wrist rays.

Out of the portal came the deranged psychopaths themselves: both the Vlad from the past and the Vlad from the future.

"Well, well, well," the older Vlad Plasmius, who had embezzled his costume more with his power and who had more white in his black-colored hair, "It seems you have all come here to die."

We said nothing, but the whirring of weapons was loud as fifteen guns were pointed at them.

They laughed cruelly in unison.

"I must say Daniel," the younger Vlad sneered, "I don't like your odds. Fifteen against three hundred, I thought you would have at least given us a challenge."

My mom fired a shot, which whizzed past Vlad's ear, barely nicking the skin.

Then, all hell broke loose.

Shots were fired from our fifteen in all directions, hitting the regenerating ghost army. When one would disintegrate, two more would form in its place. Our only hope of defeating them would be if the search party in the future can take down the ghost at the center of those duplications. I ran slightly towards the cluster of humans and halfas hoping to take down some of the ghosts that had surrounded my brother.

No sooner had I done that then James, who I had left alone, became surrounded. One of the ghosts shot a ghost ray at his back, a cheap shot, if you ask me, and James fell to his knees.

"NOO!" I yelled, running in front of him, blocking the shot aimed for James's head that would have made him fall from his knees into a puddle of blood on the ground, dead. I felt it, it hurt, but nearly as much as it should have.

Suddenly a bright light surrounded me.

I looked down, my mom was right; I had needed the hazmat suit, because now, instead of wearing the black-on-white suit, it was white-on-black. I had successfully changed into my ghost form, with snow white hair and green eyes to boot.

I smirked to myself, feeling the newfound energy rip through my body. My hands glowed green, and, working with that, I blasted the ghosts surrounding James away from him.

On the other side of the street, I noticed more ghosts fly out to replace the ones I had just destroyed, but it didn't matter right this second. I knelt down to look at James.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah…" he told me, sucking in a sharp breath through his teeth, "How did you do that?"

"Family secret. I told you I wasn't going to die," I smirked, but, honestly, I was still really concerned for him. The green mass of ectoplasm on his back had begun to grow red beneath it, as his blood began to absorb into his stained t-shirt, "Are you sure you're alright?" I asked him.

He gritted his teeth, rising to a standing position. Then, he gave me a confident smile.

"I'm fine. Now go Phantom Girl, they need you out there," he told me, raising his pistol once again and landing three spot-on shots on three approaching ghosts who dissolved into a shower of green goop.

With a nod and a grin, I flew off.

Then I was floating in the air, at a more level and fair playing ground now that I could see eye-to-eye with the ghosts without having them look down on me, and shooting each one.

"Nice shot," I heard a voice beside me. I turned to see my dad, "Proud of you, sweetie."

"You can be proud later!" Dani exclaimed, "Kind of fighting for our lives here!"

"Right, sorry!" I exclaimed, firing several more ghost rays at the other ghosts that swooped in on me.

Below me, my brother was fighting, still human, and still on the ground.

I must say, there was a little satisfaction in that, after all, he is my older brother. So the fact that I was able to use my powers before him is sustaining.

I must have been relishing in the fact that I was better than Jackson just a little too long, because I was blind-sided, literally, I was plowed into by the younger Vlad, who then grabbed my costume, hoisting me up in the air with ease. For a moment, everyone stopped, now this was a hostage situation.

I kicked and twisted and thrashed but to no avail, the grip of his hand around the back of my neck remained secure.

"It seems that I now have the upper-hand," Vlad announced, amused by his oh-so-clever word play.

Jackson glowered…no wait…he glowed!

"You seem to have forgotten one thing," he growled below us, "The only one who can pick on my sister is me!" In that instant, Jackson fired a blinding ghost ray at Vlad, while, at the same time, transforming into his ghost half in a bright white light. The ghost ray hit its mark, Vlad, and, he dropped me.

Smirking, my brother floated up next to me.

"Thanks," I whispered, rubbing my neck where the fabric of my collar had cut into my skin.

"No problem," he smiled at me, "Now let's finish this."

Now, five halfas surrounded the two Vlad's, all looking at him, murderously.

They laughed in unison.

"You all seem to forget, you're still outnumbered," and a circle of ghosts circled around or circle around the Vlads.

On the ground, the armed humans pointed their weapons at the ghosts surrounding us.

Suddenly, the ghosts around us, exploded. Popping in a bright fireworks display of green ectoplasm raining down. I grinned to myself, they had done it, the search party had taken down the ghost controlling all the others, which meant, that we were two ghosts away from winning this war.

Both of the Vlad's looked a little stunned, suddenly, we had the upper-hand.

"Goodbye, Fruitloops," my dad smirked, sucking them both into a thermos.

It was over.

We had won.

We cheered! I embraced my brother my dad, the younger version of my dad, and the younger version of my Aunt Danielle before dropping to the ground and hugging all of the humans on the ground.

"We did it!" James exclaimed, picking me up and spinning me around, when he put me on the ground, I kissed him, more deeply and more passionately than our last kiss.

Someone cleared their throat behind us, although it didn't take a genius to figure out who that was.

Not one, but two angry Phantom fathers.

"Don't kiss my daughter," they said in unison.

"Danny shut up," both of my moms said in unison, kissing their respective Dannys in celebration.

**Wow, probably only one, maybe two more chapters, I can't believe I am this close to being done with this story. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed that chapter, and, Happy Fourth of July to all of those Americans reading this, I hope you all have a great Independence Day!**


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26:

Danny POV-

I stepped on the ground transforming back to my human form, thrilled to have won the war. And the rest of us, still in our ghost forms, followed suit.

"Fenton?!" I heard a voice behind me.

'_Shit_,' I realized, '_I forgot I let Dash be here._'

"Yeah, Dash. It's me, been me the whole time," I told him, wondering how he would react.

"How come you never told me, how come you kept letting me beat you up?" Dash asked, perplexed.

"Because, cheap revenge was never worth letting anybody know my secret, and if that meant pretending to be weak, that was fine," I replied.

"Who are the other Phantoms then?" Dash asked, gesturing to the now human, halfa members of the group.

"Dash, there's something you ought to know," I said, "You know all of the exchange kids who came here?" Dash nodded, "Well, they're not actually exchange kids. They're the kids of Amity Park, our kids, in the future who were sent here because there was a ghost war going on. A war that we just ended."

"What do you mean?" Dash asked.

"What I mean is, this," I introduced my older self, "Is me, in the future, and this is Sam's future self," I motioned to her, "And these," I gestured to Wren and Jackson, "Are our, Sam and my, future kids. And, this is Jazz's future daughter," I gestured to Carrie, "And, this is Tucker's future daughter," I gestured to Sasha, "And James, is actually your future son."

Dash's eyes widened and he looked at James.

"Whoa! Really?" he asked.

"Yep!" James grinned, "Hi, dad."

Then Dash looked at Wren.

"I guess that kinda makes me some kind of pervert, what I did to you, huh? I'm really sorry. And I'm really sorry for trying to put the moves on your daughter, especially cause I guess I've got a daughter too," Dash said. I had forgotten that Wren had said that James had younger siblings but I guess that Dash would know that, given that they are living with him. Though, it still surprised me that he actually apologized to both me and Wren.

"One more question though," Dash said, "Who is that?" he pointed to Dani.

"Oh, Dani's my clone," I stated smugly.

"What?" Dash asked blankly.

"Yeah, it's complicated," Dani laughed in response.

"So what do you say, Dash, are we cool?" I asked him, hoping that now there would be no more bullying, no more fighting, and, maybe, even a friendship like we have in the future, although, I suppose that's kind of a lot to ask for right away.

"Yeah dude, we're cool," Dash said.

"Now don't go telling everybody about me. I don't really want a ton of people to know, okay?" I arched an eyebrow, anxious to know what he would say.

"Okay, sure," Dash shrugged.

"And, really, don't say anything about the future thing, or we could end up messing up the future," I warned.

"I won't say anything, I promise, I don't want to mess anything up," he said. Then he turned to James.

"Come on James, let's go home, I have a lot of questions to ask you and Robby and Gracie," Dash said, I guessed Robby and Gracie must have been the names of James's younger siblings, but at the moment, I really didn't care.

All that mattered is that we had won the war.

….

We sounded the all-clear and everybody flooded out of the shelters around town.

And, because of the ghost alarm, class was dismissed for the rest of the day.

Accordingly, the shelters from the elementary, middle, and high schools poured out onto the streets.

Eli spotted them immediately.

"Mommy! Daddy!" he exclaimed, barreling into the arms of his parents, his real parents, "Mommy! There was a ghost alarm and we were all in the basement of the school!"

"I know sweetie," the older Sam smiled at him, "We won the war! The war is over!"

"So can we go home now!" he asked.

"Yes sweetie," she smiled, kissing the top of his head, but, I noticed tears stood in her eyes. I knew why too, sure, they had been home, but it hadn't been like home, not really, now with a war raging around them and with them fearing for their lives, now, going home meant _going home_ to a place where they could be safe and comfortable, "We can go home."

Wren POV-

We all went back to the future, courtesy of Clockwork, who opened up a portal for all the parents to come collect their children and take them back to "Turkey."

Stepping through the portal, I opened my eyes to something I thought I might never see again in the future: blue skies, white clouds, green grass, singing birds, peace and freedom.

Sure, it had become a little overgrown and rundown in the seven years that it had been under ghost rule, but all of it could be fixed.

This, everyone saw, as their independence day, something that surpassed all of the independence days held by the countries around the world, because this was not just national independence, this, was universal independence. A dream of people around the world, who would, at that moment, be stepping out of their homes and marveling at the clearness of the sky after so long under the oppressive darkness.

Amity Park, who had been under the greatest oppression for the longest amount of time, celebrated like many Americans celebrated the Fourth of July: a great barbeque of hamburgers and hotdogs and fruit and chocolate and cake and everything that had been denied to us for so long, in the tall grass of the park where all of us kids could now play and run and climb trees. It had been so long since we had this freedom, that some of us, those who were younger, didn't know what to do with the freedom that they had never known. Eli in particular, spent hours, just sitting in the front yard because you know what, now, he was allowed to.

That night, instead of fireworks, we all spread their blankets on the ground and watched the stars, so glad to have our lives, our homes, our city, and our world belonging once again to us.

…

Epilogue:

Nobody in the present-day Amity Park found out about the time stream overlap, so, at least for the time being, the future would remain unaltered and well in hand. And, when the parents came to collect the future kids, the students of the past who had grown close to these kids, for reasons unbeknownst to them, were sad to see them leave.

The Vlad's are still in the thermos, yet another one that Clockwork can add to his 'time-manipulating-power-hungry-psychopath-in-a-ca n' collection. And, with any luck, he won't be able to add any more to that collection.

Danny and Sam's relationship has never been stronger, while Tucker, Jazz, and Dash continue to hold out for the people they will connect with in college.

Dani settled in nicely to the Fenton household, taking the empty guestroom and claiming it as her own, and with her new title as 'the little sister Jazz always wanted' she has been subjected to many makeovers and study sessions much to Dani's disagreement and to Danny's amusement.

James and Wren have grown in their relationship and spend much of their time together (when her dad says it's okay).

Jackson and Wren are now nearly finished with their training, and Eli, who now knows who his dad is and of his own special abilities, has also begun his training.

And the future…

The future is bright.

**The End.**

**Well, it's that bitter/sweet moment when I'm happy to be done writing it, but also sad that it's over. I hope you all enjoyed this story. **

**Happy Fourth of July!**


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